


Addicted to You

by orphan_account



Category: DRAMAtical Murder, DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2015-02-11
Packaged: 2018-02-27 07:13:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2683949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aoba just wants to live as normally and quietly as possible. Noiz wants nothing more than the chance to feel. One night gone wrong is all it takes to turn their lives upside down.</p><p>[dropped]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

It’s dark. That’s all he can say for certain.

 

It’s hard to keep still and look around with the way his vision is going double. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t gather the strength to pull himself upright.

 

His upper body remains slumped against a brick wall, legs sprawled onto rough asphalt. He can vaguely register a presence near him, hovering by his side.

 

He tries to remember where he is or how he got here, but his brain refuses to cooperate, disorganized thoughts flitting about until he's snapped out of his stupor. 

 

He feels something.

 

A tickle. Stinging. A burning sensation. He's just listing feelings he's heard of before because he can't know for certain, he’s never felt something like this before- he’s not supposed to feel anything.

 

But it’s there. Right on his neck. It’s spreading through, down his chest, arms, legs, all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes. His body feels light and airy. The shoes he’s wearing are suddenly tight, constricting. The bricks in the wall behind him are digging into his bare skin roughly and uncomfortably, to the point where he can discern every groove and protrusion of the clay. The air is cold- that has to be it, because everyone was dressed snugly in jackets earlier- and his face prickles from the wind blowing against it.

 

Then there’s the person beside him. They’re warm, almost unbearably so. He can only tell because they’re so close. Their hand is pinning his right shoulder against the wall, their face buried in the crook of his neck. Something solid is digging into his flesh, it's where the sensation is stemming from. There's also a warmth hitting him in bursts that cools it off almost instantly. It’s their breathing, he realizes.

 

It also smells like chocolate and bananas for some reason.

 

It's sensory overload, there are too many things to feel, all of them unfamiliar. But it's good, way too good. He closes his eyes and loses himself in it all, feeling as though he could die right now and it wouldn't matter.

 

The stranger pulls away, bringing the moment to an abrupt end. Noiz slowly turns his head, finding that he’s gaining strength again, and opens his eyes once more.

 

Now he can see that it’s another man. Rather than leaning against him, the stranger is now towering over him. In the back of his mind somewhere, Noiz notes that he has blue hair and gold eyes. Mostly though, he’s focussed on the blood dripping down the man's chin. It’s at that moment that Noiz feels something trickling down his own neck.

 

“Shit.” The man says, looking horrified, “I- I’m so sorry!”

 

He then whips around and takes off without a moment's notice, running straight out of the alley to god knows where.

 

“…Wait!” Noiz yells after a beat, mind still hazy and slow at comprehending. He tries to run after him, and despite finally being able to stand on his feet, he only manages a few steps before toppling over. He curses as he falls, his knees and palms taking most of the impact as he hits the ground. While he struggles to steady himself again, the sensations start to fade away. The cold is dimming, and his neck is starting to go numb.

 

Now in a panic, he grabs at the wall for balance and teeters out of the alley as quickly as he can. By the time he makes it out, there’s no sign of the man from before. The only proof that it's still cold out is the redness of his hands. Even the feeling that began at his neck is gone completely.

 

Right. His neck.

 

He's starting to lose his balance again so he leans against the wall. He takes one hand and drags his fingers along the spot where it all began. When he holds it, out he can see the red thanks the dim light of a nearby lamp post. Blood. He clenches his hand tightly, lips turning to a crooked smile.

 

His knees go weak then, and his vision starts to fade. The last conscious thought he has is whoever that was- whatever that was- he’s going to find him, no matter what it takes.

 


	2. Chapter 1

The room is filled with warmth and the mingling smells of melted butter, sugar, and almonds.

Aoba pulls the croissants out of the oven to cool, pleased to find their exteriors are the perfect shade of golden brown. He hums as he moves the pastries to the cooling rack.

“Aoba-kun, have you frosted the cupcakes yet?”

He's snapped out of his trance by his boss, who has just swung the door to the kitchen open.

“Ah, not yet Haga-san, I just took the croissants out.”

“Alright, please get on that then. And could you go grab some ingredients after? I’ll take care of opening the shop.”

“Understood,” Aoba says, immediately spooning some icing into a piping bag.

Work at the bakery is easygoing, and surprisingly somewhat enjoyable thanks to Aoba’s kind boss. Despite the long hours, he actually finds the baking somewhat calming and therapeutic. The pay is decent as well, especially for someone working in the Old Resident District. Life for him is rather routine, almost verging on boring. Even so, Aoba is just fine with that. Uneventful as it is, it brings a sense of security, so as far as he's concerned, he has it pretty good.

It only takes one bad night to throw it all off.

By all means the day starts out normally. It’s a Tuesday like any other. He wakes up just before the sun has risen, thanks and only thanks to Ren. After about twenty minutes of the dog’s coaxing, he finally gathers up the energy to roll out of bed and get dressed.

He tiptoes down the stairs and into the kitchen, careful not to wake Granny. The last thing he wants is her yelling at him for causing a racket. He heads straight for the fridge, as usual. He swings the door open and shoves his arm inside, fumbling around until he locates the tupperware container stored all the way in the back. Once he gets his hand on the lid, he to pries it off and takes one of the many packets stored inside before closing up the fridge.

He grabs a nearby pair of scissors and cuts a corner off the packet. Bright red liquid seeps out and into a glass he has prepared. As soon as the last of it drips in, he chugs it all down in one go. He enjoys metallic and slightly tangy taste while he can, though it’s over all too soon. Before he can entertain the idea of a second serving, he's startled by his watch's high pitched beeping beeping. He realizes he's already almost late for work and runs to the sink to splash some water in his mouth, swishing it around then spitting it right back out.  

Ren watches by the entrance of the kitchen, sitting straight up and alert.

“Aoba, are you properly nourished for the day ahead?”

“I should be fine, Ren,” Aoba says, wiping his mouth, reasonably confident that there isn't any residue left on his teeth.

“Perhaps you should take an extra to store in your bag, just in case. You seem to be having headaches more frequently these days.”

“It’s fine,” Aoba says, “I put one in the other day. It’s only there for emergencies anyway." Before he leaves, he remembers to pop a piece of gum into his mouth to mask the smell. He swings his bag over his shoulder and motions to Ren, “come on, we have to hurry if we want to make it on time.”

Ren walks ahead and waits at the door patiently until Aoba gets his boots on. The two start their usual walk to the bakery, which only takes about twenty minutes by foot.

Once inside Heibon, Ren waits in the cafe area while Aoba gets ready in the back. He slips on an apron and pulls his hair into a ponytail before starting the day’s work.

Soon the kitchen is engulfed in the smell of bread baking. Aoba kneads the dough for a second batch, yawning over his shoulder as he does so. It’s difficult to gather the energy to work the dough since the sun has just risen at this point. Once he’s moved the baked goods into the display, he opens the store with Haga-san’s okay. He stands behind the counter, waiting for some cakes to cool off enough to ice, as well as for customers to trickle in.

It’s an average day in every way. Maybe better than average, since a few of his friends actually drop in. Koujaku coming by is nothing new, but having Virus and Trip visit as well is slightly unusual. He greets them all with as much enthusiasm as possible, which is hard to muster around noon, with the sun shining its brightest.

Once he closes up shop it’s around 4pm. Haga-san is out, leaving all the cleaning to him. He manages to get it all done without incident, though he feels a few familiar flashes of pain in his head. He’s all too ready to leave, but the moment he’s about to head out, his phone vibrates. It’s a text, from Haga-san.

_Aoba-kun, I completely forgot about tomorrow’s order for Tobikiri co, but I’m out on delivery right now. Could you get started on the batter? I’ll pay you overtime._

“Aoba?”

Aoba turns to Ren, who’s looking at him inquisitively.

“It looks like we’re gonna have to stay a little longer,” Aoba says.

“Are you sure that’s wise? You shouldn’t go too long without feeding.”

Aoba takes a look at the sky again. Sure, the sun is out right now but for how long? Well, he can probably get things done before dark. Besides, Haga-san should be back before then.

“It’ll be fine,” Aoba says, “don’t worry.”

Haga-san doesn’t get back before dark though. By the time Aoba has mixed and poured everything, the sun is already setting and there’s no sign of his boss. He fires off a message, asking where he is. While distracted by his phone, he knocks over a mixing bowl he’d forgotten on the counter. In seconds he’s covered in a mixture of bananas and chocolate chips.

“Shit!” He says, reaching for paper towels to clean himself off. In the middle of it his phone goes off with a message from Haga-san, saying he’d arrive shortly but that Aoba should just head on home. Aoba wipes off as much of the mixture as he can, but his shirt is stained beyond repair at this point. He doesn’t have time to dwell on it though, because the minutes just keep ticking by.

“Come on Ren,” Aoba says, rushing out of the kitchen and into the open area.

“It’s late,” Ren replies, and Aoba just nods in agreement.

Rather than starting with a walk, Aoba jogs. He can feel his energy levels rising rapidly, along with the parchedness of his throat. His head is starting to hurt. Deciding not to take any chances, he runs into the first convenience store he comes across, not bothering to respond to the shopkeeper’s greeting when he runs into the bathroom, or the shocked look on their face when Ren follows behind.

He locks himself into the stall and reaches into his bag. After digging fruitlessly for a few seconds, he becomes impatient and dumps the contents out.

Headphones, walkman, wallet (that’s probably empty), and a dried up red packet. Shit. He’s not sure when it happened or how. He must have grabbed a bad one while half asleep one morning.

“Aoba?”

“The one I have is no good,” Aoba says, the dull, throbbing ache starting to worsen in his head. “Ren, we have to get home quick.”

“Right,” Ren agrees.

“I’ll cut through the alleyways just down the road, it should be way quicker.”

“The alleyways tend to run amok with criminals and low ranking rib members at this hour,” Ren warns, but Aoba shakes his head.

“I don’t have time, I have to get home right now,” he says, sweat starting to run down his forehead. Thankfully, Ren doesn’t argue.

He speeds out of the convenience store and heads straight for the alleyways. Technically they are dangerous, but having been raised around the area he’s usually able to keep out of harm’s way.

Of course, today of all days he’d run into two assholes blocking his way. They’re both pretty scrawny, but the two of them together are enough to block the exit that’s keeping Aoba just minutes from being home.

“Toll fee,” one drawls, voice slurred and hard to understand. Probably on something strong, Aoba thinks.

“A thousand yen,” the other one adds, grinning and showing off a few missing teeth.

“I don’t have any cash,” Aoba says, voice laced with annoyance.

“Really now?” The first guy stumbles towards him, giving Aoba a good view of the tattoo on his neck.

Bug Bomb. Of course.

“Last I checked this was Dry Juice turf,” Aoba says. He only gets laughter in return. In all honesty he couldn’t care less about turf wars right now, he just needs to get home. The stinging pain in his head is only worsening by the second. “Look, if you just let me pass through, I won’t tell them that you guys were hanging out around here.” Not that he means that. He just needs some way out and fast.

“If you want to get through, you have to pay the fee,” the first guy says, in such an arrogant tone that Aoba just wants to beat the snot out of him at the sound of it, “we should be making you pay for two, seein’ as you’ve got a mutt with you.”

“He’s not a mutt,” Aoba says, annoyance turning to anger.

“No need to get so mad, just give us the money if you don’t want any trouble.”

“I said I don’t have any on me, so just quit the bullshit,” Aoba says. Suddenly one of them lunges forward and grabs Ren by the tail, the latter yelping in surprise.

“Let him go!” Aoba yells, reaching for him. The other man grabs Aoba by his collar and hoists him up before he can.

“Just give us the money and we’ll let your little doggie go,” he says.

The dull ache in Aoba’s head suddenly turns into a searing pain. He clutches at his forehead in an attempt to keep it down.

“Just fuck off already!” Aoba yells, elbowing him in the chest with all the force he can. He drops Aoba with an undignified squawk.

“You wanna fuckin’ go?” He throws a punch that Aoba manages to dodge, and out of reflex Aoba strikes back, roundhouse kicking him, sending the guy's face slamming into the wall. He forgets the extent of his own strength at the moment, and the impact is enough enough to cut the guy up pretty good. Blood starts streaming down his his cheeks, and the moment it does, Aoba can smell it, and it’s so good, so sweet and enticing that it makes his head spin, and it’s at that moment that everything snaps.

“Is that the best you can do? You little bitch.” Aoba says, voice lower, more confident. The man moves forward and tries to wrap his hands around Aoba's throat, but Aoba is faster. He grabs the man’s face and shoves him back against the wall. Aoba continues to slam his head against it, harder and harder, until he stops struggling.

“O-oi, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” The other man, who has only been watching in shock until this point, drops Ren and moves to tackle him, but Aoba is quick to move out of the way. The man stumbles forward and nearly falls over.

“Aoba!” Ren’s voice cuts through, and Aoba has a moment of clarity, a moment where he thinks that he has to stop this right now, but his head starts hurting again and all he can feel is bloodlust.

Aoba grabs the man by the arm and yanks him closer. He punches him in the stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of him. It only takes another punch to the head to render him unconscious. Aoba is so caught up in the sound of him hitting the concrete that he doesn’t even notice Ren running off.

“Shit, that was fast. You guys really are a couple of weak asses,” Aoba leans down over the two bodies slumped over the ground. He takes a whiff of the air and has to keep himself from drooling.

“Damn, it’s been awhile since I’ve had anything fresh,” he says before pulling one of them up by the collar. He licks his lips then traces the flesh of the man’s neck with his fangs, pushes against it enough to feel the tension of skin that’s about to break. Finally he sinks his teeth in, letting the blood that pools out sit in his mouth for a moment to savour the flavour.

It tastes so much better than the bagged shit he has to put up with these days. One sip. Two sips. Three sips. Four. He goes for a fifth but barely gets half a mouth full. He pulls away, disgruntled to find that the guy has already turned to skin and bones. He lets the corpse fall.

Whatever. He has one more.

This time he doesn’t go slow. He bites into the warm flesh the moment he has his mouth on it. One sip. Two sips. Three. Shit, he’s hungrier than he thought, because this guy is no good anymore either. The body lands on top of the one from before.

Aoba stands up straight and stretches, cracking his neck as he does so. He feels amazing, other than the fact that he’s still hungry. Any drowsiness or exhaustion he’d felt earlier is like a distant memory. He feels faster, stronger, more alert. He loves it. He can’t even remember the last time he fed on a living, breathing person. He wants more. Needs more.

Everything seems to have become clearer, or maybe it’s just his senses turning sharper. He closes his eyes and listens. He can hear all sorts of things, cars driving by, people talking. He has to focus before he finds what he’s looking for. Footsteps, not too far off. He sprints over to the sound, turning in and out of the streets as quickly and quietly as he can.

He’s slightly surprised when he reaches the source.

In this shithole of a city, well-dressed guys in fancy suits aren’t all that common. Oh well, clothes aside, that’s not what he’s interested in.

He stares at the man’s back point blank. The stranger eventually turns, and when he sees Aoba he simply stares back.

“…What?” the man finally says in irritation. Aoba can’t help but feel impressed at how collected he is. Especially for someone trapped in an alley with him, while he’s undoubtedly covered in blood at this point.

“You smell good,” Aoba says, moving forward and grabbing his arm. Despite his lithe silhouette, he seems to be decently fit.

“Fuck off,” the man says, yanking his arm out of Aoba’s grip.

Aoba refuses to back off. He leans in even closer and takes a whiff. When he gets past the expensive cologne, he can smell the sweet, sweet scent of blood, “I’m hungry,” he says while licking his lips.

“I’m not interested,” the man responds blankly. Aoba almost wants to laugh, both at how haughty he sounds as well as how cheeky he’s being. He’s not bad looking. Younger probably, but he has nice cheek bones. Too bad he’s going to be dead in a matter of seconds.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he whispers. Before the man can respond, Aoba grabs him and slams him into the wall.

He doesn’t expect the guy to react fast enough to land a punch on him, on his face no less. He can taste his own blood thanks to the force of it cutting the inside of his cheek. It’s flavourless to him though. No point if it’s his own.

Aoba grimaces then smirks, “nice, you pack a good punch.” It’s a pretty sad testament to Bug Bomb that some random stranger managed to land more hits than some of their rookies. He returns the favour with a punch to the gut. Not without recoil though, he gets kneed in the stomach soon after.

He lets out a grunt, but more out of surprise than anything, there’s only so much damage a regular human can do to him.

“Heh, I guess this is enough fucking around for now, I’m too hungry for this shit.”

Aoba slams him against the wall by the throat. The stranger is still staring at him blankly, as if he isn’t affected at all. He’s not even trying to fight back anymore. That pisses Aoba off. He grabs the collar of his dress shirt long with the hem of his blazer and pulls as hard as he can, feeling nothing but satisfaction when he hears the fabric tear. He rips whatever he can straight off, leaving the man’s torso half naked. Perfect, it’d be easier to get at his neck that way. He’d also done it partly out of spite, in hopes that tearing his obviously expensive suit would get more of a reaction out of him, but if anything, the man just looks mildly annoyed.

Well at least Aoba gets a nice view. The dude is surprisingly well built, and he has a belly button piercing. Not bad at all.

“What the fuck do you want?” The man says, the venom in his voice betrayed by the way his body is slowly slipping down to the ground. It’s almost as though he doesn’t even register the amount of damage that was dealt to him.

“Don’t worry about it,” Aoba says, “you’re cute, so I’ll make sure this won't hurt a bit.”

He leans into his neck and takes a moment to find the perfect spot. He licks at it before slowly sinking his teeth in. It tastes amazing. His blood is so much sweeter than that of the last two. Aoba isn’t sure why exactly, but it doesn’t matter, what matters is that it’s delicious and it all belongs to him-

His train of thought is derailed the moment he feels a searing pain in his head. He gasps and pulls away, closing his eyes and clutching at his head. Everything goes dark before coming into focus again.

Aoba blinks slowly. What’s going on? Where exactly is he? He’s kneeling down on the ground and it’s completely dark out. He last remembers two assholes on his way home and oh… Oh no.

He slowly licks his lips. Blood. Fresh blood. He looks up in horror.

It’s not even one of the two men from earlier. It’s someone else. He looks about half conscious, so he’s not dead at least. He’s not far from it though, with the way his breathing is ragged and his eyes are glazed over.

The gravity of the situation hits Aoba then, and he begins to panic. “shit!” he stumbles back,“I-I’m so sorry!” He says, as if it will make a difference. He doesn’t know what to do then, he just turns and runs as fast as he can, not even registering where he’s going, just knowing that he fucked up and that he needs to be anywhere but there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is where it all begins. I definitely took a lot of liberties and had fun creating this au, so it might seem a little confusing setting-wise and such so far, but I promise that everything has been planned out, so there will be answers eventually.
> 
> Not much Noiz in this chapter unfortunately, since this was more a set the stage sort of thing. He'll definitely have a larger presence in the next chapter though.
> 
> Also there will be more characters involved than the ones I have tagged so far, but I'll add as they appear.
> 
> And finally, before I forget, I want to thank my friend Dani for helping me work out plot issues/basically being my unofficial beta reader ( ˘ ³˘)❤


	3. Chapter 2

Aoba rests his head against the counter and groans. It’s been a long week. Way too long. In some ways it feels like more than just seven days have passed.

“Are you alright, Aoba?” Ren looks at him curiously, an undertone of concern in his voice.

“I’m fine Ren,” he replies, “just tired is all.”

“Are you hungry?”

“No,” he sighs, “it’s nothing like that.”

He’s more frustrated with himself than anything. He’d gone over a year without any incidents, why it suddenly had to happen again was beyond him.

He looks up when he hears the bell of the front door jingle.

“Welco- oh, it’s just you.”

“Hm? How cold of you,” his tone is light and teasing, so Aoba pays no mind to it.

“Yeah yeah, I guess you’re too used to the way your fangirls greet you. Kyaa, it’s Koujaku!” He says in a mockingly high pitched voice. Koujaku’s eyes widen and his cheeks turn red.

“Oi, Aoba, that was uncalled for,” he says, looking away to hide his embarrassment.

“So what’s up? Shouldn’t you be at your shop at this time?” Aoba asks. It’s not unusual for Koujaku to visit around lunchtime, but it’s still morning.

“Well,” Koujaku says, rubbing the back of his head, “I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing.”

“I’m fine, you hippo. Just like the last ten times you asked,” Aoba replies. Sometimes Koujaku’s worrying is just too much.

“Well,” Koujaku takes a quick look around to ensure that the shop is empty, “you were pretty shaken up that night.”

Aoba is taken aback for a moment. While Koujaku usually takes to tiptoeing around issues and simply asking how he’s doing, this is the first time he’s brought it up since then so explicitly. Aoba crosses his arms and looks to the floor, “well yeah,” he says, “it’s been so long since the last time, I didn’t think it was going to be a problem again.”

Koujaku hums in agreement, “well, these things happen. How have you been since then?”

Aoba just wants to roll his eyes. Koujaku says it so nonchalantly, like it’s reasonable to occasionally go completely haywire and suck the blood from a few unsuspecting victims.

“Like I said, I’m fine. I’m even keeping a lot of extra blood on me now, just in case.”

“So have you told Tae-san yet?”

“No,” Aoba says, “and I’m not going to. She’d flip her lid if she found out. Especially since I completely made a mess of things this time.”

The last time he’d pulled something like this, he had a hell of a time getting the bump on his head to heal. Not to mention the ringing in his ears that had lasted for days after all the yelling.

“Ah, I see,” Koujaku says, and Aoba can see that he’s fidgeting.

He narrows his eyes, “Koujaku.”

“Mm?”

“Why did you really come by?”

Koujaku frowns but lets out a sigh, “I really can’t hide anything from you, can I? Well, I hate to talk about this here, but it’s important.”

“What’s going on?” Aoba asks slowly, and Koujaku motions towards the back.

“Is there any way we can talk in there? I don’t want anyone walking in on this.”

“It should be fine. Ren, keep an eye on the store okay?”

“Understood.”

Aoba leads Koujaku into the cramped back office. Koujaku leans against the desk while Aoba takes a seat.

“Is this about that night?” Aoba asks, and Koujaku nods, “…what is it?”

Koujaku purses his lips as if he’s unsure where to start, “…it’s about what you said when I first found you.”

“Yeah?”

“When Ren found me and told me what was going on, he said that there were two guys.”

“Yeah,” Aoba agrees, “the ones from Bug Bomb.”

“Yeah,” Koujaku looks Aoba in the eye, “when I first got to you, you were pretty hysterical. You kept yelling about the Bug Bomb guys… and a third guy.”

“Okay,” Aoba says, “so ?” Deep down, he’s starting to get nervous. Koujaku looks serious.

“I didn’t want it to come to this, I was hoping that you were just freaking out in the moment but,” Koujaku pauses, “you’re sure there was a third guy that night?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Aoba says, “he really stood out because he was wearing a suit.”

“A suit?” Koujaku repeats, “and you’re sure this happened in the Old Resident District?”

“Well I met you maybe a minute later, so it had to be close by- wait, why are you asking this?”

“Well we’ve searched all the nearby streets and alleyways, and even some farther off over the last few days, but all we’ve found are the Bug Bomb guys.”

Aoba feels his throat go dry, “…what?”

“We couldn’t find the third guy. I thought that maybe we’d missed him, but there’s nothing. No body anywhere.”

“What? That can’t be right,” his head is starting to spin, “maybe someone took it?”

“Well I can't imagine why someone would take the body.”

Aoba knows that he’s right, but if there was no body…

“Shit! Koujaku, that guy might be alive somewhere.”

Koujaku nods solemnly, and Aoba’s blood runs cold. If that person knows about him, then it’s all over. It’s already been a week, there may even be a hired hunter after him.

“Aoba.”

He’s startled out of his thoughts by Koujaku putting his hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got Benishigure keeping an eye out for suspicious guys. I won’t let anything happen to you. Just, you know, be careful alright?”

“I will,” Aoba nods, “thanks, Koujaku.”

“No problem,” Koujaku replies, eyes instantly warming from the serious expression he wore earlier.

Once silence settles in, the two notice scratching at the door.

“It’s Ren,” Aoba says, walking over and opening the door a crack.

“Aoba, there are customers waiting.”

Aoba takes a peak and nearly blanches when he sees the number of people lined up.

“Shit, I have to get back to work. We’ll have to finish this later.”

“Right,” Koujaku agrees, “you get back to the front, I’ll let myself out.”

“Thanks,” Aoba says, rushing out, the line ahead of him pushing the conversation he just had out of his mind for the time being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This time it's a double update, I felt bad because I promised a more Noiz in the last chapter, but he doesn't make another appearance until chapter three. So hit the next chapter button and I promise more Noiz this time.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this story takes place in Japan I've decided to use only Japanese honorifics/titles, so you'll see the word 'shachou' a few times, which is used to refer to a company president. Just thought it'd be helpful to throw that out there.

Noiz drums his fingers against his desk, scrolling through different files on his laptop as he does so. He blinks slowly, ready to nod off. Work is as tedious as ever. Just as he’s decided to take a break, there are three loud and precise knocks at his door.

“Come in,” he calls, leaning back in his leather chair and crossing his arms. His secretary promptly enters.

“Excuse me Shachou, the company president mailed over a few files he wanted you to look over,” she starts and he waves his hands dismissively.

“Just leave them on my desk.”

“Of course,” she carefully places the manilla folder on top of the shiny, mahogany surface. Rather than leave right away, she stands there awkwardly, looking conflicted.

“Was there anything else?” Noiz asks, not in the mood for any chitchat.

“Ah, I was just wondering how you were doing, you were only discharged just recently-“

“I’m fine,” Noiz interrupts, “it wasn’t a major injury. If that’s all then you should probably leave. I have a lot of work that needs to get done.”

“Right. I apologize for my impertinence,” she says, while her eyes travel straight to the large bandage on his neck. She turns red when she realizes he caught her staring, and she quickly bows apologetically before leaving the room.

Noiz simply stares at the door for a few seconds after she’s left. He sighs then reaches for the bandage, lightly tugging and poking at it.

He’s been trying, but it’s impossible to keep it from consuming him.

Ever since he woke up on that hospital bed a few days ago, he’s been searching for the person who sent him there, dying from blood loss with nothing but two angry red wounds in his neck.

In all honesty he’s still trying to piece together exactly what happened that night. So far, he’s come to a few conclusions.

1) It happened in an old and dirty alleyway in the Old Resident District (this part was never really an issue, considering he’d walked there on his own before it happened).  
2) The person he’d met there had blue hair and smelled like bananas and chocolate. These strange and possibly useless tidbits were the only things he could clearly remember about them.  
3) They had done something to him. Whatever that something was, he wasn’t certain yet, though he had his suspicions. The results of it are the reason he’s been looking for them frantically.

Unfortunately, the person he’s searching for is one out of millions, and it’s not like he has the time to scour the island to find them. Luckily for him, money talks. For once, being born into a wealthy family is doing him some good. The moment he’d regained enough lucidity in the hospital to recall the events of that night, he’d demanded his phone and computer. Such demands are taken seriously when they’re made by the President of the Japanese branch of a multinational technology firm.

He'd instantly found five men who claimed to be experts at tracking anyone down. He didn’t really give a damn about their claims though. His request was simple, whoever found who he was looking for first would get a sizeable lump of cash in return. There had been a few protests though, claiming it was impossible to find anyone based on the little information he had. Adding another zero to the reward money seemed to have nipped that in the bud.

He’d search himself if he could, but his parents would never allow him to brush off work. If they were to find out that he’d been slacking off, they might even ship him right back to Germany, crushing any chances of him ever meeting the stranger again.

Despite all that, he finds that getting anything done at this point is infeasible. Not when he thinks back to that night and what he had experienced. That had to have been feeling, there was just no other way of putting it. Something he once thought he’d go his entire life without.

Of course, there's always the chance that he’d imagined it. After all, it had only been pure luck that someone had come across him dying of blood loss in an alleyway, and even luckier for him that they’d bothered to call an ambulance. It could have all been a delusion brought on by his half dead state.

Still. He wants to believe that it had been real. He won’t rest until he can confirm it for himself.

He reaches for the folder on his desk and leafs through the papers. Before he can take a look at the first page, his phone vibrates. Before it can vibrate for a second time, he picks it up and answers.

“Yeah,” after a few moments he knits his brows, unsure if what he’s hearing is real, “really? Already?” He feels his heartbeat quicken, “I’m going to check him out for myself first, but if what you’re saying is true, then the money is yours.” He pauses again, “where was it you said that I’d find him?”

He grabs a notepad and scribbles an address down. Without missing a beat he shoves his phone into his pocket and bursts out of his office doors.

“Excuse me, Shachou?!”

His secretary is looking at him in shock. Noiz walks on while looking straight ahead.

“I’m going for my break.”

The elevator doors close and drown out her response.

It isn’t the last strange look Noiz receives as he exits the building. Of course it’s unprecedented to leave in the middle of the morning. Then again, it’s possible it’s because of the injury he’s sporting. People seem to whisper behind his back whenever he walks by these days.

He waves a taxi over and receives a confused look when he tells the driver his destination. Most people who live in Platinum Jail tend not to leave it- especially to get to where Noiz wants. Any reservations the driver had are quickly quieted once Noiz pulls out a sizeable wad of bills.

The drive is the longest of his life. It gives Noiz some time to reflect on the conversation he just had. It’s possible that it’s just a dead end, an attempt to swindle him out of some cash. It has only been a few days after all.

According to the man he’d hired though, the person he’s looking for was basically ‘hiding in plain sight’. Just an ordinary guy working at a bakery. It almost sounds a little too good to be true. Even so, Noiz can’t help but feel abuzz with excitement.

The streets are always incredibly congested the moment you leave Platinum Jail, though lately traffic issues are arising inside as well. Noiz is starting to wonder if they’ll ever make it to his destination when the car turns into a less crowded road. Up ahead Noiz can see the street sign, they’re almost there. Just as the car speeds up, a pedestrian steps onto the road. There’s screeching and then the force of the car abruptly coming to a halt. Noiz is pulled forward by the momentum, eventually slamming into the dashboard thanks to not putting on his seatbelt. It’s only a minor inconvenience to him, it’s not like he feels it anyway. The driver on the other hand, is yelling and making obscene gestures at the passerby. The pedestrian is also displeased, giving the driver a few of his own choice words before stomping off. Noiz wonders if it’s normal for people who live in this part of town to waltz around in kimonos and carry swords around.

Not even two seconds later, they reach the shop. Somehow, it seems anticlimactic for something he was obsessing over for the past week. The near hit and run from earlier really soured the mood for him.

It’s part of an old, dilapidated building. A small shop with a run-down sign on the front boasting ‘Heibon Bakery’. Noiz doesn’t even realize how long he’s been sitting there until the taxi driver clears his throat. Noiz rolls his eyes but leaves the car regardless, slamming the door as hard as he goes.

He stands outside the building, taking it all in before stepping inside. The door gives a little jingle as he opens it. There are plenty of people lined up, with one employee working frantically to get everything done. The moment Noiz takes a look at him, he knows.

It’s him.

The long blue hair, the build, that voice he uses to thank customers for their purchase. Whatever had happened that night, the answer is right there, packaging a cupcake.

Noiz fights back the urge to shove everyone in front of him out of the way. It’s like time is almost standing still for him. He tries to wait calmly for his turn, but inside he feels butterflies in his stomach.

He’s so close.

Before he knows it, he’s only second in line. He should probably figure out what to order, considering he’s made it this far. He scans the glass display case and immediately knows what to buy. When he finally gets to the front of the line, the employee drops some change he was holding. He leans down to grab it before Noiz can say anything.

He tries to remember the phone call from earlier, when the man had told him his target’s name. Something to do with blue. Ao… Aokiji? Aoyama?

“Sorry for the wait! What would you li-“

While Noiz had been lost in thought, the man had straightened himself up and given his usual customer service smile, until he'd frozen up, eyes widened in terror.

He's looking at Noiz like he just saw a ghost.

Perfect. Only further confirmation.

“One muffin,” Noiz says coolly, “banana chocolate chip.” His eyes drift down to the man’s apron, where a name tag sits neatly on the top.

Aoba. Right, Aoba.

He’ll definitely have to remember that.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case you aren't familiar with the dish, oyakodon is made with chicken and egg cooked in a broth, which is then eaten over rice.

Aoba stares at the man standing before him blankly.

There’s just no way.

It has to be some sort of strange coincidence. After all, there are probably countless blond men that wear suits on the island. Yeah, definitely a coincidence.

“Ah, sorry,” Aoba mumbles, realizing he had been staring. He turns and opens up the display, “what kind did you want again?”

“Banana chocolate chip,” the man responds.

Aoba freezes again. The image of his stained shirt flashes in his mind. No. It’s obviously another coincidence. He shakes his head and grabs the muffin. He’s just being stupid right now. Lots of people love banana chocolate chip muffins. He packages it and pours all his attention into to typing the total into the till, staring straight at the screen.

“That’ll be 300 yen.”

Aoba refuses to look up. Three 100 yen coins are dropped unceremoniously onto the counter. Aoba picks them up and shoves them into the register. He starts tapping his foot as the receipt is printed at a snail’s pace. Damn this shop’s ancient machine. Once it finally spits the receipt out, Aoba places it onto the package and thrusts it forward, eyes still facing downwards.

He’s forced to look up once seconds have passed and the man still hasn't taken his things. To Aoba’s dismay, he’s staring him down silently.

“Have a nice day,” Aoba says, shoving the box closer. This time, the man takes it, but he makes no move to leave his spot or move his gaze. Why. Why is he still here. Aoba has a sinking feeling that he knows exactly why. For once, he desperately wishes there were other customers in the shop. As it is, he has no reason to kick the guy out.

“Did you need something?” Aoba spits out, the discomfort of it all too much to handle.

The blond blinks, “last week,” he starts, and Aoba’s stomach drops, “not too far from here-“

In a panic, Aoba shakes his head, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he tries. Inwardly, he wants to smack himself on the forehead. It’s obvious even to him how fake he sounded just now.

“You’re a terrible liar,” the other man says bluntly, and Aoba tenses up.

“What,” Aoba says, “are you going to kill me now? Or are you going to get someone else to do it for you?” At this point, there’s no use in mincing his words. If there’s going to be a confrontation, he wants to be prepared for it.

To his confusion, the man shakes his head, “no. I don't want you dead.”

“…Huh?” Aoba replies, otherwise speechless. He frowns once the wheels start turning in his head. This is probably some sort of trap. Maybe he’s about to blackmail him, threaten to hurt his family and friends because he wants something in return. Aoba steps back slightly and braces himself for the worst, “what?”

“...I want you to bite me.”

Aoba’s eyes nearly bug out of their sockets.

“Wait- what?!”

“That’s what you did last time, right?” The man points to the bandage on his neck and Aoba nearly gasps. How he’d managed to miss that during their initial exchange is beyond him. The sight of a blond in a suit had apparently made him more nervous than he thought.

“But- you- you nearly died! Do you even realize what you’re saying? Why would you want that?” Aoba’s head is spinning. He’s starting to wonder if he fell asleep on the job and is now being punished by having to suffer through some sort of weird nightmare.

The man frowns, “that’s none of your concern. I just want you to bite me,” he says in an authoritative tone, as if he expects Aoba to just agree.

“No!” Aoba exclaims, “no way in hell!”

He stares unblinkingly, “why not?”

“Because, I don’t want to be responsible for killing you!” Aoba yells. He’s grateful that Haga-san is out at the moment, unable to hear any of this.

“So? You didn’t seem all that concerned when we first met.” And damn him for bringing that night up, because it just reminds Aoba of certain tastes and smells. His head is starting to hurt. He needs to get this guy out of here, quick.

“That… was different!” Aoba says, “and it’s never going to happen again!”

The man narrows his eyes and moves, walking right up to the counter and leaning forward, looking Aoba straight in the eye, “fine. I get it. What do you want in return?”

“What?” Aoba asks, leaning back to leave as much space between the two of them as possible. This guy is getting way too close for his comfort.

“Money? Gifts? Women? What is it that you’re looking for?”

It takes Aoba a second to grasp what the other is implying, “Wha- I don’t want anything! Listen here, you-“

A sharp, ringing noise startles the two. The man reaches into his pocket and answers his phone, leaving Aoba staring, open mouthed.

“What? Right now? Are you sure?” After a few moments the blond sighs, “fine,” he starts to walk towards the door, “I’m on my way.” He turns his phone off and shoves his muffin and receipt into one of his pockets, before giving Aoba one last look, “I’ll be back,” he says, marching off and leaving Aoba standing there, dumbfounded. The door slams shut behind him while the store bell jingles cheerfully.

“…Ren?”

“Yes, Aoba.” Ren, who has been patiently watching from the other side of the room, walks over to beside the register.

“Did that just happen? Or am I dreaming right now?”

“Unfortunately, I can confirm that this is not a dream.”

Aoba gapes at the door, “Ren, that was really him. That was the guy-“ it suddenly occurs to him that he just allowed him to leave without finding out a thing about him. Aoba jumps over the counter and runs forward, throwing the front door open.

Unlike at night, during the day the Old Resident District buzzes with activity. The streets and sidewalks are packed with people and vehicles, and Aoba knows he has no chance of finding him now.

Twice he’s met this guy, and both times he’s been so out of it that he's mucked things up spectacularly. Aoba groans and buries his face in his hands, slowly stepping back into the shop.

“Aoba, if I may interrupt, he did voice his intention to return eventually.”

“Right,” Aoba says, rubbing his temples. There’s still a chance to fix things. Now he’s just trying to understand why anyone would want to be bitten after surviving the first time.

Speaking of biting, he still has a slight headache.

“Ren, watch the front for a second, I’m going to eat,” he reaches for his bag that’s stored under the counter and nods towards the back office.

“Yes, understood.”

The rest of the day is normal. Normal enough that time drags by unbelievably slowly. Aoba is on edge for the whole day, being uncertain as to what ‘I’ll be back’ is supposed to mean. It could mean anything from later that day to months, or even years after. Once he closes up shop, he decides that he’s probably safe for today at least.

There are still a million questions in his mind. How did the guy manage to track him down? Just how much does he know about him? Why is he after being bitten again? Is that really what he's after?

“Aoba.”

Aoba pauses mid-walk, looking down to meet eyes with Ren, “what is it, Ren?”

“You’re thinking too much.”

Aoba sighs, kneeling down to gently stroke the soft fur on his head. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Let’s just focus on getting home for now.”

When Aoba swings the door to his house open, he’s met with the smell of his granny’s delicious cooking. He takes a deep breath, the scent instantly calming him down somewhat.

“I’m home,” he calls.

“Welcome back,” is the reply, and then, “you forgot to lock the door again on your way out! You’re too careless!”

At this point, even his granny’s scolding is welcome after the day’s puzzling encounter. One look at the oyakodon she’s making results in him licking his lips. Regular food doesn't provide the nutrition that blood does, but the taste is enough to keep him coming back for more. He sits at the dining table with an exhausted sigh. Tae gives him a look, but silently sets the food down regardless, along with a packet of blood.

“Eat up,” she says, and Aoba takes the packet gratefully, despite having had blood twice already that day, “I’ve gotten plenty lately, so you don’t have to worry about running out for a while.”

Aoba wipes at his mouth to clean off any excess, “really? Why is that?”

She huffs and shakes her head, “we’ve been getting a lot of badly injured patients coming in, usually too far gone for anything to be done.”

Aoba frowns, “is it because of ribsteez?” At the rundown hospital she works at, it isn’t uncommon for people to end up there after a turf war. For the most part though, people in those situations come out alive.

Tae shakes her head again, “it doesn’t seem like it, they aren’t normal wounds. And they come in with their blood drained.”

“Blood,” Aoba says, reaching for his plate, “you don’t mean…”

She nods this time, “they’re not even doing a clean job, no one has come in completely dry. Not that it matters to me, but all the nurses are scared that there’s some sort of crazy on the loose. Not that it would be anything new around here,” she grumbles.

Aoba's cheeks turn pink in embarrassment, considering he pulled a similar stunt not too long earlier. His victim hadn’t even died.

“Wait, why would they leave all that blood behind?” At least in his case, what happened was an exception. He’s never heard of any others leaving… leftovers.

“Why do you think I would know?” Tae snaps, and Aoba sinks down into his chair, silently shoving some rice in his mouth, “you’d better be careful though,” she adds, “with the way rumours are being spread, it’s only a matter of time before more hunters start moving in.”

“Right,” Aoba says, thinking back to the man from earlier. He claimed that all he wanted was to be bitten, but was that really true?

Aoba sits there silently. He thought he had just barely got by scot free after that incident, having spent the night at Koujaku’s place, and having trusted his childhood friend to help him to clean up the mess. Here he is now though, with some guy, who really shouldn’t be alive but is, who's already found him and is prepared to go after him and… well, Aoba isn’t even sure what to make of the situation.

“I’m done,” Aoba says, standing up and placing his dishes in the sink, “thanks for the meal.”

Tae grunts in response and he nods to Ren. The two make their way up to Aoba’s room, where he collapses onto his bed, worn out. He manages to fire off a single text to Koujaku before falling into a heavy slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Classes ended for me this week, so I'm going to have a lot more time to write this. I hope I can get plenty done during this break!
> 
> This chapter was fun to write because there was finally some Aoba and Noiz interaction. I think the next few chapters are going to be even more fun since this is only the start (✧∇✧)╯this fic is going to end up kind of long, but I'm super excited to write more, and I hope you guys will enjoy what's to come as well!


	6. Chapter 5

Noiz’s eyes bore into the screen.

The internet is failing him. Either that or he’s not digging deep enough. Most likely the latter.

There are millions upon millions of pages about vampires. Most of them are complete garbage. Many are dedicated to books and films about them, all of which are useless to him since he’s searching for non-fiction information. What remains after weeding through those are websites with ’spells’ to turn into people into vampires, forums for people to discuss their desire to become vampires, and vendors who claim to sell ‘authentic’ vampire merchandise. Whatever that means.

It’s all exceptionally strange and bewildering, and none of it is of worth a damn thing.

He tries to narrow it down further, to Midorijima. Practically nothing pops up. Other than a couple of news reports, there’s one page detailing some sort of conspiracy theory.

Out of curiosity he clicks the link. The page itself looks like something from the dark ages, with nothing but paragraphs of text to adorn the otherwise blank page. He skims through quickly, lacking the concentration to properly read any of it. On the bottom he comes across a list of dates.

They all seem to be completely random, most are from years back, some even decades. There are no explanations beside them, leaving their meaning a mystery. Before he closes the tab, the last date posted catches his eye.

It’s from just over a week ago. In fact, it’s the night he met Aoba.

Weird. Then again, plenty of strange things are happening these days. He chalks it all up to coincidence and moves on.

He starts looking through the news reports. Apparently some damage had been dealt to some of the walls around Platinum Jail, leaving a few people injured. He has no idea what any of this has to do with what he’s looking for.

Thoroughly annoyed, he slams his laptop shut. After a few seconds, he reaches into the pocket of the blazer he’d thrown over his chair.

There, in its slightly squashed up form, is the muffin he’d bought and subsequently forgot about. He picks at the top and gives it a good look. Other than pizza and pasta, he’s never been one for buying food. Especially when it comes to food like… this. He’s used to forcing down whatever fancy shit is served at the elitist parties he’s forced to attend, but he’s never come into contact with something like this.

Hesitantly, he takes a small bite. It’s kind of mushy, though that’s probably his fault for leaving it in his pocket for so long. It’s also quite sweet, though bitter at the same time- that’s most likely the chocolate. It’s not bad. Not as terrible as he expected anyway.

With slightly renewed vigour, he opens up his laptop again. He then turns his attention to the document he had minimized. It contains Aoba’s name, date of birth, address, phone number, the works. That guy he hired had definitely been thorough.

Noiz lets out a loud yawn. It’s late now, past 2AM according to the clock on his screen. It’s all thanks to work, he’d been stuck at the office until long after dark. He’s still annoyed that today of all days was when an important business partner had to come in.

He supposes it doesn’t really matter. Now that he knows who Aoba is, he has all the time in the world. He’s not all that patient though, he’d hoped to get more done today.

But Aoba had just looked confused and afraid. Even more so after Noiz had explained that he wasn’t looking to kill him.

It was actually kind of cute, like Aoba himself. Once he’d gotten the opportunity to get a good look at him, Noiz had been impressed. Not that it would have mattered if he had been unappealing.

He’s still trying to figure out how exactly to convince Aoba to bite him once more. In Noiz’s experience, a monetary reward has always been enough to get what he wanted. Oddly enough, none of his suggestions had even seemed to sway Aoba.

It’s all too strange. This is why Noiz hates interacting with people. He can’t even begin to understand them, other than the fact that they’re easily motivated by their desires. As attractive as Aoba is, Noiz is frustrated that he doesn’t seem to be any closer to his goal.

He brushes his finger against his bandage for what has to be the hundredth time that day, and like every time before, he doesn’t feel a damn thing.

He opens up the work lined up for him tomorrow. If he gets started now, he could possibly get away with leaving at three or four. He reaches over and grabs a now cold slice of pizza from the box on the table. He debates making some coffee, since it looks like it’s going to be a long night.

 

—

 

Noiz takes a sip of the coffee he’s just made, frowning at how bitter it is since he couldn't find any sugar. He stretches then, lacing his fingers together and pulling his arms back so that he can rest his head against his hands.

The last time he checked, it was about 4:00PM. The bakery’s hours state 3:30PM as closing time, so it’s only a matter of time now.

As if on cue, he hears the sound of the doorknob turning.

“I’m home!” A voice calls, soon joined by the sound of shuffling at the doorway.

“Welcome back,” Noiz responds, and the movement by the door ceases for a moment. He waits in anticipation.

Aoba rushes inside, turning into the kitchen when he sees Noiz sitting at the table. He stops before him, staring uncomprehendingly. Noiz simply gives him a nod.

“Yo.”

Aoba drops his bag, “what are you doing here?!”

“I was waiting for you,” Noiz replies, leaning into the chair comfortably.

“How did you get in? And where’s Granny?”

“I jimmied the lock. No one was home when I came in. I did find this.”

He holds up a note, with something scribbled on it about buying ingredients for dinner.

Aoba stares at him open-mouthed, “you- get out!” He yells.

“Why?”

“Because you just broke in!”

“I said I’d be back.”

“That doesn’t make this alright!” Aoba exclaims, “what the hell are you doing breaking into peoples’ houses?”

Noiz shrugs and takes another sip of coffee. He’s exhausted from his all-nighter, so he needs the caffeine boost.

“What is that?”

“Coffee,” Noiz responds flatly.

“Let me get this straight,” Aoba says, pinching the bridge of his nose, “you broke into my house and just made yourself some coffee.”

Noiz simply takes another sip in response, then proceeds to set the mug down and stand up.

“So you’re a vampire, right?” He says, cutting straight to the point.

“Huh?” Aoba looks taken aback for a moment before frowning, “…why are you asking that now, that’s why you came after me isn't it?”

“Not really,” Noiz replies, “I don’t care what you are,” he steps closer to Aoba, “I just want you to do whatever you did that night again.”

Before Aoba can protest, he holds a hand up, “I’ve read up,” sort of, not that it was useful. He at least knows this much though, “you need blood. You’ve been using these, right?” He reaches over to a chair and picks up the container he’d grabbed from the fridge earlier and left there, the red of the packets standing out clearly through the transparent plastic.

“Did you go through the fridge?” Aoba asks, yanking the package out of Noiz’s hands and putting it back on the table.

Noiz ignores him and continues on, “but you like fresh better, right? It works out for the two of us. I want to be bitten and you want some blood. I don’t even care if I end up dying.”

Aoba stares at him before finally speaking again, “okay, hold on a second here. Before you can even think about making any demands, you have to answer some of my questions.”

Noiz makes a face, having not foreseen this. He isn’t going to squander the opportunity though.

“Fine. What do you want to know?”

“First of all, who are you? You haven’t even told me your name.”

“Noiz,” he responds. Aoba frowns.

“Tell me more than that. Why are you always hanging around in suits anyway? Most people from around here can’t afford to dress like that.” With the look he’s giving Noiz, it’s clear that he’s guessed that he’s not exactly a local.

“I work for my parents’ company in Platinum Jail, I can’t exactly go around in casual clothing.”

Aoba furrows his brows, “that explains the suits, but if you’re working in Platinum Jail, then what the hell were you doing in the Old Resident District that night?”

Noiz crosses his arms. He isn’t sure why Aoba wants to know this, but if it’ll get him to his goal, he’ll continue to play along.

“I was there for business actually, one of my assistants needed to pick something up from around here. He was taking too long so I went to find him. According to the map I was using, there was a shortcut through some alleyways. Then I ran into you.”

Aoba narrows his eyes, “what is it that you wanted from here? Couldn’t you have just gotten it from inside Platinum Jail? I don’t think there’s anything we have here that you wouldn’t over there.”

Noiz shrugs, “we had a package come in internationally. It got dropped off at a wrong address, and no one from over here could get inside Platinum Jail so we had to pick it up ourselves.”

“Okay,” Aoba says, still eyeing him suspiciously, “and what happened to your coworker?”

“He got in an accident. He’s in the hospital now,” and to squash any doubts about the matter once and for all, Noiz pulls out his phone, “I can call him for you, if you really want to make sure.”

“What? No, leave the injured alone. I believe you, I guess,” Aoba says, though he still doesn’t look completely convinced. “…okay, moving on then. So you were in the Old Resident District because of work reasons.”

“Yeah.”

“…how did you survive after that?” Aoba asks carefully.

“Someone found me and I got taken to a hospital I guess. I woke up in Platinum Jail.”

“Okay,” Aoba says, “…and how did you find me after?”

“I paid someone to do it.”

Aoba’s face pales, “you paid someone to find me? So that means someone else knows-”

“No,” Noiz interrupts, “I just told him I was looking for someone who had blue hair that lived around here. I also mentioned that you smelled like bananas and chocolate.”

“Bananas and chocolate?” Aoba asks, face lighting up in recognition as soon as he remembers the shirt he stained, “Right. And that was somehow enough to find me?”

Noiz shrugs, “apparently. Turns out that blue hair isn’t too common. Neither are bakeries in this area.”

“Fine,” Aoba gives him another look, “so why did you want to find me so badly? You can’t be serious about being bitten, so what is it that you really want?”

Noiz takes a deep breath but decides that he might as well be up front since he's asking, “I’m serious. I want you to bite me again. I felt it.”

“You felt it,” Aoba repeats, looking at Noiz blankly.

“Yeah,” Noiz says, “I’ve never felt anything before.” Truthfully, he feels a little sick inside talking about this. It’s never brought him any good.

“You’ve never felt anything before,” Aoba repeats again, clearly perplexed.

To make a point, Noiz grabs the mug of steaming coffee and dumps it onto his own hand. Aoba cries out while Noiz watches his hand turn a violent shade of red. Noiz stands still, completely unperturbed.

Suddenly, Aoba yanks him over to the sink and turns the tap on full blast, running the water over the burn. 

“Are you crazy?” Aoba says, “don’t move!” He adds, running over to the pantry and ruffling through things while muttering under his breath. Noiz realizes at this point that he probably could have cut himself up and gotten what he wanted. Damn it. Missed opportunities.

“It doesn’t matter,” Noiz says.

“You be quiet!” Aoba snaps.

He returns once the colour on Noiz’s hand has faded to a pale pink. He grabs his hand and slathers some sort of ointment on before applying gauze. Noiz watches, baffled, as Aoba fusses over him.

“You’re an idiot,” Aoba says, once he’s finished dressing the wound.

“It’s not like I can feel it,” Noiz responds, and just to drive the point home, he slams his injured hand against the counter, causing Aoba to gasp.

“I get it already, just quit doing those things!” He says, taking Noiz’s hand again and looking it over.

“It’s fine,” Noiz says, but he doesn’t mind Aoba holding his hand like this, though he wonders why he’s going so far as to help him.

Aoba frowns, “so you’ve been like this your whole life?”

“Yeah.”

“But you’re saying you felt something that night?”

Noiz nods, “well, that’s what I think it was.”

There’s a long silence then, during which Aoba releases Noiz’s hand and crosses his arms, looking conflicted.

“…I can’t,” Aoba finally says. Noiz’s stomach lurches.

“Why not? I want it.”

“That’s not the point. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t even know if I could do it without killing you.”

“You did it before, that’s why I’m here,” Noiz points out.

“That was different,” Aoba says.

“How?” Noiz asks impatiently.

“That was,” Aoba struggles to find the words, “sometimes if I go too long without blood it’s like a whole new side of me takes over. The person who did that to you that night, it wasn’t me. Well, it sort of was but not really,” he says, sighing, “look, I wish I could help you, but there’s no way any good could come of it. For all we know, it was a fluke and this could just end with you dying.”

“So? You’ve killed people before, haven’t you? I don’t see how I’m any different.”

Aoba starts to speak but ends up pausing for a few moments, “that’s… this is different, okay! The only people I’ve killed before have been random guys that I didn’t even know. But now that I know your name and your face, my conscience wouldn’t be able to take it.”

Noiz frowns, unable to understand for the life of him why Aoba is so concerned about people he has nothing to do with.

“It should be fine because I’m fine with it.”

“That’s not how a conscience works!”

Just as Noiz is about to respond, another, much deeper voice cuts through.

“Aoba, you are in need of feeding.”

Noiz blinks, staring at the source of the voice. He hadn’t even noticed the dog there earlier, though he vaguely recalled seeing him at the bakery.

“Your dog just spoke,” he says, and though he words it like a statement, he’s looking for confirmation.

“Yeah and I’m a vampire, so it’s not that big of a deal.”

Noiz can’t really argue with that logic.

Aoba reaches for one of the packets in the box tears off part of the plastic.

“Are you sure you don’t want some of mine?” Noiz tries.

“No,” Aoba replies bluntly, drinking from the packet. Noiz regrets not having taken all of them and drained them into the sink while he had the chance.

Noiz stares the dog down.

“Is this a vampire too?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Aoba says between sips, “and don’t call him ‘this’, his name is Ren.”

Noiz decides he doesn’t care about the dog anymore, “so you’re not going to bite me?”

Aoba rubs his temple and then shakes his head, “…no.”

“…fine,” Noiz says.

Aoba gives him a look of suspicion before tossing the empty packet in the trash, “wait, so you’re giving up?”

“I never said that.”

“What do you mean then?”

“Last time you wouldn’t stop yelling "no". This time you had to consider it. That means you’ll break down eventually.”

“What? I’m telling you, I won’t do it matter what!”

Noiz smirks, “we’ll see about that.”

Before Aoba can argue with him further, the sound of the front door swinging open catches his attention.

“Aoba~”

A random man’s voice suddenly rings through the house. Aoba looks like a deer caught in headlights. Noiz remains unfazed, even when the stranger walks in.

He’s wearing a kimono and has a sword in his possession. Noiz feels like this isn’t the first time he’s seen him, but he can’t put a finger on when that would have been.

“I thought I’d come by since you sent that message-“ he stops in his tracks when he sees Noiz standing there, frowning in confusion, “oi, Aoba, who’s this?”

“Well... this is Noiz,” Aoba says.

Noiz doesn’t appreciate the way the man is staring daggers at him, so he returns the favour.

“Aoba, get back,” the man says, “this guy looks like trouble.”

Noiz doesn’t respond, instead raising an eyebrow.

“Koujaku, it’s okay. He’s not dangerous.”

“Get serious Aoba, those clothes- he’s the guy from that night isn’t he?”

“So what if I am?” Noiz says.

Koujaku steps closer, “I won’t let you hurt Aoba.”

“I’m not going to hurt him,” Noiz says, stepping closer as well. It’s been a while since he’s gotten into a fight, but he’s confident in his abilities.

“Yeah right,” Koujaku says, moving to grab at his sword.

“Stop it already!” Aoba yells, stomping in between them, “Koujaku! It’s fine, he’s not dangerous. Noiz, don’t pick a fight when you just hurt your hand!”

For a third time, there’s the sound of the door opening.

“What’s going on in here? I can hear the racket from outside!”

“Granny,” Aoba says, looking at her in horror when she appears.

“Ah, hello Tae-san, just thought I’d drop by,” Koujaku adds.

She gives Aoba and Koujaku a look of annoyance, when she sees Noiz she gives him a look of suspicion, though in the end she just huffs at the three of them.

“Keep it down unless you want a good beating. I’m making dinner now, so get out and wait in the living room.”

Both Koujaku and Aoba leave obediently, with the latter grabbing Noiz’s arm and dragging him with them.

“You have to listen to granny unless you want a good scolding,” Aoba warns, and from this distance, Noiz can tell just how nice Aoba’s eyes are, a soft and inviting shade of gold.

“How old are you supposed to be?” Noiz says, unsure of how to be anything but snarky, especially now, and Koujaku whips around, hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Koujaku, quit that!”

“But Aoba, he’s talking down to us!” He’s also glaring at the hand Aoba has wrapped around Noiz’s arm. Interesting.

“Koujaku,” Aoba repeats, and the older man sighs and retreats, seating himself on the couch. It’s at that point that Aoba lets go of Noiz’s arm, which he can’t help but feel is a shame.

“I can’t believe he's going to eat with us,” Koujaku mumbles, and Noiz gives the two of them a look of bewilderment.

“Well, granny invited you,” Aoba says, which only furthers his confusion. Why they’re offering to feed him is beyond him.

“I can’t,” he says, “I have to be back at the office soon.” It’s true, one of the downsides of leaving early in the day meant he’d better be back at night, or else he’d definitely hear from his parents.

“Oh, alright,” Aoba says, “then I guess I’ll walk you to the door.”

To Noiz’s annoyance, Koujaku follows in tow.

“Be careful with your hand,” Aoba says, while Koujaku stands behind him, looking pleased as can be that Noiz is about to leave.

It kind of pisses him off, how protective and buddy-buddy he’s being with Aoba.

He opens the door, but instead of leaving right away, he steps straight in front of Aoba. Noiz brushes his lips against his cheek, and honestly, the way Aoba turns red and is left speechless with shock is more satisfying than the sound of complete horror Koujaku makes.

“Later,” he says, sauntering out, Koujaku’s shouting and Tae’s louder yelling in response all sweet music to his ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had actually planned on posting this chapter last night, but some things got in the way. Here it is now though!
> 
> I also went through and edited some things in earlier chapters (nothing major, all grammatical). So that got me thinking, I've never said it outright but I enjoy/appreciate all feedback. So if you guys ever notice anything that needs improvement, whether it's a spelling/grammar mistake or characterization that needs work, I'd love to hear it! Criticism is always welcome.
> 
> Anyway updates will probably speed up since I wrote my last exam on Friday and I want to accomplish as much during this break as I can. I say probably just because it depends how busy I end up being with other responsibilities. I guess that's all I have to say for now, thank you so much for all the feedback you guys have left so far, I hope you enjoyed this chapter (*´꒳`*)


	7. Chapter 6

“Yo,” Koujaku says, entering the shop.

“Koujaku-san!” Kou calls, holding his glass up.

“Hey boss,” Hagima adds.

“Hey, look who finally decided to show up.” Mizuki nods towards him while polishing a glass.

“My bad,” Koujaku takes a seat beside Hagima at the bar and stretches his arms out, “I got a little caught up in some things.”

“Some things? More like Tae-san’s cooking,” Mizuki pours out a glass of Koujaku’s favourite sake and slides it over to him.

Koujaku doesn’t respond to that, instead taking a long swig of his drink.

“You were at Aoba-san’s?” Kou asks excitedly, “how’s Ren doing?”

“He’s doing good, I’ll see if Aoba can come by with him sometime soon.”

While Kou celebrates, Mizuki decides to cut in, “speaking of Aoba, I haven’t seen him around for a while.”

The expression on Koujaku’s face goes from cheery to moody in an instant.

“Aoba’s fine, just busy,” he says, taking another drink. Mizuki raises an eyebrow.

“What’s wrong, are you two in a fight or something?”

“Huh? Oh no, it’s nothing like that,” Koujaku says, still looking gloomy.

“So what are you acting like that for?” Mizuki asks.

“It’s nothing. I just worry about all the weird people he hangs around,”

Mizuki rolls his eyes, “what, Virus and Trip? They’re harmless enough around him.”

“Not those two,” Koujaku says, though just the thought of the two yakuza scumbags makes his stomach churn, “some new weirdo who’s been hanging around him.”

“Oh?” Mizuki pours another glass and slides it over to Hagima, “well I bet Aoba can handle them just fine. He can hold his own in a fight no problem.”

Kou and Hagima nod in agreement, and Koujaku sighs.

“Yeah I know you guys are right,” he finishes the sake off and sets the glass down, “moreover, that’s not why I came here.”

Mizuki’s smile is replaced with a frown as he leans against the bar, the air turning heavy.

“…My condolences,” Koujaku says.

“Thanks,” Mizuki replies and for a moment everyone remains silent. “Anyway,” he starts again, “Nothing we can do but be more careful from now on.”

“Right. Were they…” guys he knew, Koujaku wants to say, but he realizes how disrespectful it sounds, so he just shuts his mouth.

Mizuki has known him long enough to guess what he was about to say though, so he answers anyway, “no, they were new guys. Barely a few days into the team. That’s probably why it happened to them, lack of experience and all. If only I’d been more cautious, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Koujaku says, “no one could have seen any of this coming. If anything, now we can be more prepared.”

“Right,” Mizuki agrees, with an unsure smile plastered onto his face, “so about that agreement.”

“Yeah,” Koujaku says, “I think it’s a good idea considering the circumstances. No one else has any objections, right guys?” He asks, turning to his subordinates.

It’s unheard of, Rib teams forming official alliances. However, in light of all the strange attacks lately, it’s almost natural for Benishigure and Dry Juice, who have been on good terms from the start, to look out for each other. It’s not like anyone else is going to.

“Whatever Koujaku-san decides, we’ll follow,” Kou says, with Hagima grunting in agreement.

“What about your team?”

“They’re coming around,” Mizuki says, “after we lost those guys though, I don’t think anyone’s really against it.”

“I wonder what’s going on lately,” Kou sips at his drink, looking confused.

“There have been strange attacks for years,” Koujaku muses, “but for so many people to suddenly end up like that lately is strange.”

“There are rumours going around,” Mizuki starts, lowering his voice to a murmur, “apparently people are saying that Toue’s behind all this. They engineered some sort of monster in Platinum Jail to wipe out everyone in the Old Resident District.”

Koujaku frowns, “do you believe that?”

Mizuki snorts, “hell no. That’s just what’s going around though.”

For a moment the air is tense and heavy with the weight of the situation. Eventually, Mizuki grabs another bottle of sake.

“Well since we got the alliance issue out of the way, I say we kick back and relax for now. Let’s have another round, on Koujaku.”

“Oi,” Koujaku tries to protest amidst Kou and Hagima’s cheers.

“Come on, I know you’re making big bucks at your salon,” Mizuki says while refilling Koujaku’s cup.

Koujaku sighs but raises his glass.

“Alright fine, this round’s on me.”

 

\---

 

Aoba stumbles out his front door, still heavily fatigued. He lets out a huge yawn as he walks forward, trying to keep himself steady enough to make it to Heibon.

It had been a long, sleepless night. Now he’s suffering the consequences.

At least he somewhat trusts Noiz now. Sort of. Not really. He’s a weirdo for sure, but he doesn’t seem like he’s out to actively harm Aoba. Anyway, if that had been his motive, he’s had more than an ample number of opportunities to do something by now.

That hadn’t stopped Koujaku from fretting over the situation last night, begging for Aoba to watch himself. He truly doesn’t think that Noiz is dangerous though. More of a nuisance than anything.

That aside, Aoba isn’t really sure how to deal with him at this point. Especially after that. Whatever that kiss had been. If anything, it had probably been an attempt to get a rise out of Koujaku, but that didn’t make it any less mortifying.

He checks the time and sighs. He has a long day ahead.

It isn’t until past one that Noiz makes his way into the shop, his appearance coming as no surprise.

“Yo,” Noiz says, strolling in casually. As if he hadn’t done something completely questionable the night before.

Aoba frowns, half out of annoyance and half because he anticipated the lack of shame, “oi, what was that yesterday?”

“What was what?” He looks as though he has no idea what Aoba could be referring to.

“That-“ Aoba turns red just thinking about it, “that thing you did before you left!”

“Oh,” Noiz pauses, “what about it?”

Aoba can’t believe it. He looks completely unperturbed.

“Why did you do that?” He asks.

Noiz shrugs, “I just felt like it.”

Aoba wonders why he even thought he had a chance of getting any sort of explanation out of him. He’s a weirdo through and through.

“What’s it going to take for you to bite me again-“ Noiz begins, before Aoba nearly jumps over the register to clamp a hand over his mouth

“Idiot,” he hisses, taking a look around. Other than them, there’s an old woman and her two grandkids sitting nearby. Thankfully, they seem too engrossed in their own food and conversation to have heard Noiz, “you can’t just bring that up anywhere!” He says, leaning back and removing his hand.

“They weren’t paying attention anyway,” Noiz replies, “besides, they’d probably think I was talking about something else.”

It takes Aoba a moment to get what he’s saying. When he does, he turns red and snaps at him, “you pervert!” Great. This guy is a weirdo and a lecher.

Noiz shrugs again, face still expressionless. He’s really starting to piss Aoba off. Keeping his job is the only thing stopping him from giving the guy a good smack on the head.

“So what’s the answer?” Noiz asks again.

Aoba raises an eyebrow, “nothing. There’s nothing you can do, so you should probably quit wasting your time.”

“Come on,” Noiz says, and god does he sound like a whiny kid. Maybe he is a kid, it would explain his shamelessness. Actually, the closer Aoba looks, he does look kind of young. Once you look past the suit he’s got the face of a grouchy teenager.

“No,” Aoba crosses his arms, “I’m not changing my mind about this.”

Noiz clicks his tongue and Aoba swears that he’s pouting. That’s definitely a pout. He really is reminding him of a bratty kid right now.

“How old are you?” Aoba asks, curiosity getting the better of him.

Noiz gives him a weird look like he didn’t expect the question, but he answers regardless “…Nineteen.” That explains a lot, Aoba thinks.

“So you really are younger than me.”

“Yeah. Congrats old man.” Aoba’s jaw drops.

“Old man?! I’m only a few years older,” Aoba says, somewhat offended, “if anything, I could be a big brother to you.”

“A big brother,” Noiz says, expressionless.

“Anyway,” Aoba says, deciding he’s had enough of this, “we’re only open for paying customers. If that was all you were here for, then you’re going to have to leave.”

“Fine,” Noiz says, staring down the display. After a moment, he points to a cookie.

“Is that all?”

“Yeah, it’s enough right?”

“Yeah, I was just asking because of company policy,” Aoba says, ringing him up.

Noiz takes the cookie and sits at the table closest to the register, staring Aoba down. Aoba doesn’t hesitate to stare back.

Finally Noiz moves his gaze to the cookie. He squints at it and turns it over in his hands. Aoba raises an eyebrow.

“What, never had a cookie before?” To his shock, Noiz actually nods.

“I don’t eat anything but pizza and pasta,” he says, and Aoba looks at him like he’s grown a second head.

“Why?”

“Because I like them,” Noiz responds, as if that explanation is enough.

“That can’t be good for you,” Aoba says, “you need to eat better if you want to be healthy.”

“That’s rich, coming from a vampire,” Noiz says and for a second Aoba is left without a retort. Mostly he's just grateful that the old lady and her kids are no longer in the shop to hear this.

“…Still, even I can appreciate good homemade cooking like my granny’s. It’s healthy but still delicious, filled with love and all,” Aoba says, embarrassing as it is.

“I’ve never eaten anything like that,” Noiz says, and the look on his face grows darker. For once Aoba is lost for words.

The awkwardness of the moment dissipates once the door opens, as Aoba is forced to turn his attention to the front.

“Ah, welcome! Oh, hey,” he says, when he sees a pair of familiar faces.

“Yo, Aoba-san,” Virus steps inside with Trip not too far off.

“The usual?” Aoba asks, getting a napkin at the ready.

“Yeah,” Trip says, and Aoba moves to package some curry rolls.

“How is work?” Virus asks, and Aoba shrugs.

“Same old same old, how about for you guys?”

“It’s fine, we’ve just been keeping busy lately.”

While Virus and Aoba chat, Trip’s eyes are directed elsewhere. Once Aoba hands Virus the rolls, he looks over and sees the younger man locked into a staring match with Noiz.

Aoba struggles to figure out how to intervene. Thankfully, Virus does it for him.

“What are you doing?” He sounds less than amused.

Trip finally looks away and shrugs, “he was staring pretty hard at Aoba-san, so I was just seeing what he was made of.”

“It’s fine,” Aoba says, “ignore him.”

“You better be careful Aoba-san,” Virus says, “it looks like you have another fan.”

Aoba frowns, “He’s not a fan!” And neither are you guys, he wants to add, but he knows it’s a fruitless endeavour after all these years. He really hates when Virus and Trip refer to themselves as his fans.

“Yeah, keep an eye out,” Trip agrees, and Aoba just shakes his head in annoyance as the two of them make their exit.

“We have to get back to work. We just wanted to drop by and say hi, so see you around.”

“Yeah, bye,” Aoba says, immediately wondering why so many troublesome people had to visit today.

Aoba turns to Noiz once they’re finally out, “what’s wrong with you? Don’t get into random staring matches with people.” To his irritation the blond simply takes a huge bite from the cookie, chewing it and staring him straight on. Aoba rubs his temple.

This guy isn’t dangerous- just a pest.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MIzuki finally makes an appearance... in chapter six orz  
> I feel so bad because he's been in the tags since the beginning but it took forever for me to write him in. I'd planned on having him appear sooner but I ended up moving things around in my outline. He's here now though, and he'll be making more appearances. 
> 
> This chapter took forever for me to edit for some reason. I already have most of the next chapter written out, I want to finish it quickly since things are going to really start picking up from there! Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, even though it's been mostly setup this time around.


	8. Chapter 7

The days pass by, and Noiz’s daily visits become routine.

As far as he’s concerned, every day feels like an eternity. Aoba is incredibly stubborn, more than Noiz had anticipated. Still, he refuses to give up. At some point Aoba is going to have to cave in, it’s just a matter of waiting for that time to come.

Until then, all he can do is fantasize about it. He yearns for the experience, the sensations, the feelings he’d had that night, he wants it more than he can even put into words. But he has to be patient. He’ll wait as long as he needs to.

Work today seems to be dragging on longer than usual. Noiz isn’t sure if he’s just imagining it, but it feels like he hasn’t had a moment of spare time. It’s like every time he tries to go on break, more work is piled onto his desk.

He taps his foot as he flips through proposal his assistant just dropped off. There’s always the possibility that his productivity is lagging thanks to the distraction. The very real possibility. He can’t keep going like this, at this rate his parents are bound to become angrier than they already are. It’s not that he cares how they feel, but if they were annoyed enough to ship him off to Japan, then who knows where he may end up next. In a place without someone like Aoba, at the very least.

Even while working at full speed, the pile on his desk is relentless. By the time he’s hailed a cab and made it to the Old Resident District, it’s nearly closing time. Once he makes it to the bakery, he catches Aoba just as he’s locking up. Noiz saunters up to him.

Aoba doesn’t notice him, too busy humming to himself. Upon closer inspection, Noiz realizes that he has his headphones in. Not only that, but he’s sort of dancing along to whatever is playing, judging by the way he’s moving his shoulders. Noiz smirks in amusement. He stands right next to him, waiting, and his patience is rewarded when Aoba looks over and nearly jumps out of his own skin. Somehow, he never ceases to be entertaining.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Aoba pulls off his headphones, “what are you doing?”

“I was trying to make it out of work before closing,” Noiz says, frowning at the sign stating the store hours.

“Is that it? I thought it was weird that you didn’t show up today.”

Noiz shrugs, “whatever. I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Aoba looks at him suspiciously, “what, are you planning on following me home since you didn’t make it in time?”

“That’s the plan,” Noiz responds, impressed at Aoba’s ability to predict him, expecting some sort of protest in return.

To his surprise, Aoba stares at him for a moment before sighing, “fine.”

Noiz raises his eyebrows, “really, that’s all you’re going to say?”

“It doesn’t matter what I say, you’d probably just break in anyway.”

Noiz doesn’t reply. Aoba marches ahead with Ren in tow. Noiz is walking beside him a moment later, undeterred. He remains silent, looking at their surroundings. All along the road they’re walking on are various tight and narrow alleyways.

“This area,” Noiz starts, and Aoba looks at him, “reminds me of this,” he motions towards the bandage on his neck. It's much smaller than before, his wound already nearly healed.

“You- don’t you think about anything else?”

“Not really.”

Aoba shoves his hands in his pockets and looks ahead, “you better not bring any of that stuff up around Granny.”

“Huh?” Noiz furrows his brows, perplexed by the change in conversation.

“Granny,” Aoba repeats, “the grouchy old lady you met last time. She’ll be cooking up dinner by the time we get home. She’ll smack you over the table if you bring that up while we’re eating.”

“Eating?”

“Well, if you’re coming right now then we’re going to feed you.”

Noiz is confused, as per usual around him, “why?”

“Why what?” Aoba asks.

“Why feed me? What’s the point?” Noiz says.

“It’s no big deal,” Aoba says, “besides, you need to eat something other than pizza and pasta once in a while.”

“Pizza and pasta are enough.”

“I bet your health says otherwise.”

“It’s weird,” Noiz says, unable to figure out exactly what Aoba is supposed to get out of giving him food or looking after him. He speaks up then, louder, “I’d rather you just bit me.”

“No way,” Aoba says, “all you’re getting is food.”

Noiz stares at him. In all his life he’s never met anyone who has taken any sort of interest in helping him for seemingly no reason. Whether it was for his money, the influence he had because of his parents, or some sort of connection, there was always some sort of catch. But Aoba doesn’t want anything from him- refuses if Noiz even so much as suggests something.

He wants to be able to feel. Pain, warmth, cold, all of it. That’s still the main goal. But there’s also a curiosity coiling in his stomach, something about Aoba that makes Noiz want to know more, want to understand him. It’s something he hasn’t felt for a long time, so long that he’d forgotten such a feeling existed.

He’s not sure what to make of it, only that it leaves an empty sort of feeling in his chest.

—-

Koujaku scrolls through the messages on his phone. Beside him, Kou and Hagima walk steadily, heads held high and observant.

_still nothing_

He sends the text off to Mizuki, reverting his attention to his surroundings, eyes alert. Not even half an hour ago he’d had to rush away from work (apologizing to the women in the line had been no easy endeavour) thanks to a call from Mizuki.

Someone had died near here earlier, body discovered by some Dry Juice members strolling by. Just a random, unsuspecting passerby. It hadn’t been a pleasant way to go, all made clear by the victim’s face twisted in terror, with blood pouring out of their body and onto the concrete.

The three Benishigure members continue their search through the area, a less crowded, but generally safe street. The sun is still shining brightly, making it easy for them to scan their surroundings.

Murders in the middle of the day aren’t normal, even by the standards of the District. Especially ones involving someone unrelated to rib, the yakuza, or the police force.

Koujaku tries to focus at the task at hand. The person responsible can’t have gone far. They need to be caught and taken care of, fast. That in mind, he can’t get the image of the corpse out of his head.

“It’s the same,” Mizuki had said, staring it down, emotion in his eyes. Without even asking Koujaku had known he was talking about the Dry Juice members from before.

The answer seems so simple, yet it doesn’t make any sense. Others who have been around long enough, others like Aoba, know so much better than this. They’re efficient. One bite to the neck to get the blood out and that’s all. They’re weary and careful as well, Midorijima is teeming with hunters who hide in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. They know better than to attack in broad daylight and leave their victim lying out in the open.

Koujaku reaches into his kimono, fingers brushing over the wooden stake. He hopes he finds it before Mizuki, before anyone else. He’s probably the only one equipped to stand a chance.

He’d warn everyone else to carry one around, but he knows he’d just sound stupid. The existence of supernatural entities isn’t viewed as anything more than rumours among the majority. He’s one of the privileged few who knows Aoba’s secret, and he’ll do whatever he has to to protect it, to protect Aoba. Whether that means getting rid of bodies for him- or others trying to jeopardize the secrecy of his kind.

“Hey, doesn’t Aoba-san live around here?” Kou asks.

“Not too far from here,” Koujaku muses, imagining that Aoba must be on his way home now.

“I hope he and Ren are doing okay,” Kou says.

Koujaku smiles, “don’t worry, Aoba is strong, he’ll be fine.” If anything, Aoba is the safest of all of them.

“Oi,” Hagima nods towards a narrow street, “I think I see something.”

“Let’s check it out,” Koujaku walks ahead of the two, frowning as he sees what Hagima was talking about.

There’s some sort of tarp thrown onto the ground. Fearing the worst, Koujaku kneels down, and gently tugs it away.

Kou and Hagima immediately let out the breaths they were holding, while Koujaku stares grimly.

It’s another body lying in a pool of blood. It’s slightly less suspicious, seeing as this guy is wearing a police uniform. His body is lying face down, and Koujaku feels the nagging urge to turn him over.

“Looks like another one of these guys got into a fight,” Kou says.

“Just a second,” Koujaku grabs at the man’s sleeve and slowly rolls him over.

Kou and Hagima both make sounds of surprise.

Just as he suspected. It’s the same as the other body earlier, and the Dry Juice members from before. Deep red fang marks all over, on any patch of skin that’s bare. His face and hands weren’t spared at all.

The three of them are silent for a moment.

“Come on,” Koujaku says, finally standing, “we have to keep searching.”

—-

Stew, Aoba thinks, is what Granny mentioned they were having earlier. Noiz has finally quieted down and quit whining, and is now walking alongside him and Ren in relative peace. Aoba sneaks a peak at Noiz, who’s looking ahead, expression as bored as ever.

It’s been bothering him since Noiz mentioned it. Not eating home cooking. Something like that makes Aoba’s heart ache. Not that he knows Noiz’s family circumstances, but if there’s one thing that Aoba does know, it’s the good that sharing a meal with someone who cares about you can do. At least Noiz following him home has given him the opportunity to have him try Granny’s cooking. Aoba is sure it’ll do him some good.

Aoba only realizes he’s been staring when Noiz finally turns his way, “what?”

“Nothing,” Aoba says, embarrassed by his own rudeness. However, the moment he takes another step forward, any thoughts of dinner or embarrassment are wiped from his mind.

The hairs on his neck stand. 

He whips his head around then, a shiver running down his spine.

“Wait!” He says, holding an arm out and stopping Noiz in his tracks. Ren stands at his spot, ears pricked up and on edge.

“Aoba, something is here.”

“I know, Ren,” Aoba responds mind racing. He turns to Noiz, “we have to get out of here. It’s dangerous.” He says, throat shaky.

“What?”

“Come on,” Aoba says, taking Noiz’s arm and pulling him along.

“What’s going on?” Noiz asks, though he’s making no moves to release himself from Aoba’s grip.

Aoba doesn’t have the chance to respond before someone charges at them from an alley, almost out of nowhere.

Aoba grimaces as the man standing before them looks them up and down. He’s wearing all black, sweater with the hood pulled up and jeans. There’s something off about him though, something in his eyes that just doesn’t look right. He’s not even looking at Aoba, instead staring straight at Noiz.

Aoba steps in between the two as a barrier. He’s about to tell Noiz to make a break for it, completely unprepared for the man to lunge at him with his fangs bared. Aoba stumbles back while the guy tries to bite into his neck. He turns his head away in time to only have the fangs graze against the skin on his neck.

Aoba moves quickly while he can, roundhouse kicking him. His foot meets the guy’s head with a loud crack. It’s enough to incapacitate him for a moment, so Aoba turns to Noiz.

“Get out of here!”

Rather than looking alarmed though, he just looks contemplative. Oh no, this idiot couldn’t be considering what Aoba thinks he is.

At the sound of a grunt, Aoba turns his attention to the other man. He spits out a mouthful of blood and turns back to stare at them, eyes still as wild as before.

He reaches for Aoba again. Expecting some sort of blow to the face, Aoba holds his arm up to protect it. To his confusion, the man actually sinks his teeth into his forearm and tries to suck some blood out.

Despite the pain, Aoba gathers the strength to knee him in the gut as hard as he can. The power of the bite weakens, so Aoba charges forward and slams their heads together. The man stumbles and lands on the floor, straight onto his back, breathing ragged.

Aoba steps back, ignoring the pain in his head, and looks at Ren, trying to figure out just what the hell the man is trying to do. There’s no point in drinking blood from other vampires- it has no taste or nutritional value.

“Aoba, it seems that he is simply going after any source of blood he can find,” Ren says, and not a moment too soon because he’s standing up again, this time his gaze aimed at Noiz, who’s been standing silently all this time.

Aoba looks at Noiz, then Ren, an idea quickly forming. He reaches into his bag and pulls out the two packets of blood he’s been keeping in there. He tears one open and throws it into the air, aimed at the man, blood flying out and spraying the ground a few metres off.

That seems to catch his attention. Even Aoba can smell the blood clearly from where he’s standing. Aoba takes the second packet, and throws it as far off as he can. To his relief, the man goes running after it, lured in by the thought of easy "prey".

Aoba takes the chance to grab Noiz’s hand and run off in the opposite direction.

“Come on, we have to get away from here!”

Though Noiz hasn’t released himself from Aoba’s grip, he looks thoughtful.

“You could have just left him to bite me.”

“You idiot, did you see him? I could barely handle him, he probably would have ripped you to shreds!”

Noiz doesn’t say anything, and Aoba continues to pull him along, through different streets and alley-ways, running as far as he can, all while feeling a familiar ache in his head, until he finally feels that they’re safe.

They end up in an old, barely used street other than for junkies to hang around in. Aoba pulls Noiz into a side road, where they’re trapped between apartment buildings so high that barely any sunlight makes it in. Aoba leans against a wall, taking a moment to catch his breath. Noiz doesn’t even look tired. Composed as usual.

It’s at this moment that his headache starts to really set in. It’s about feeding time- and running around during the day like that only tires him out more, making him hungrier.

But he’s already thrown away the last of his blood.

Aoba turns away from Noiz, clutching at his forehead.

“What’s wrong?” Noiz asks when Aoba gives him his back, refusing to look at him.

“Nothing,” he responds, as the pain in his head only worsens.

For a second there’s silence.

“You’re hungry aren’t you?”

Aoba’s heart drops.

“No,” he lies halfheartedly.

Noiz turns to Ren, “is he telling the truth?”

“Oi-“

“…Aoba, it seems that you are in urgent need of feeding,” Ren says, tail drooping out of concern.

“Bite me,” Noiz says, grabbing Aoba’s arm and turning him so that he’s face to face with him. “you don’t have your blood and you’re hungry. If you don’t, that other side of you will come out won’t it?”

And he’s right. Aoba knows he’s right but still. He told himself he was never going to do this again.

“I can’t,” Aoba says, voice hoarse and throat growing unbearably dry. The pain is getting worse by the second.

“It’s fine,” Noiz says, “it’s not like you have a choice, right?” He stops even closer to Aoba, the proximity making the smell of the blood under his skin all the more noticeable.

Aoba grimaces as the pain in his head grows stronger. He doesn’t want to do this. Doesn’t want to hurt Noiz or inadvertently kill him. But the pain is getting worse by the second, he just can’t take it anymore. If he waits any longer, then…

So he gives in, he grabs Noiz by the shoulders to pull him closer. When they’re both standing face to face like this, Aoba realizes just how much taller Noiz is. His neck is at pretty much the perfect height for Aoba to bite.

He takes a deep breath as he brings his head closer to Noiz’s neck. He’s so hungry that he can almost feel the blood pumping through it. He peels the bandage off, resolving to only leave one scar if he has to, before he slowly sinks his teeth into his skin.

Rather than sucking blood outright, he zeroes on the sound Noiz’s breathing, thinking that if he just focusses on him, it’ll keep him from taking too much. Aoba moves one hand down so that it’s resting over his chest, where Aoba can feel his heartbeat. Another reminder that he needs to be careful.

Noiz hisses at first, then sighs, eyes half lidded.

“Can you feel it?” Aoba asks, fangs only slightly embedded in his skin at this point so that he can speak.

“Yeah,” Noiz replies, voice so husky that it surprises Aoba, “why’d you stop? Keep going.”

“Quit being so demanding,” Aoba replies. Nonetheless, he takes a slow and careful sip. The taste of Noiz’s blood is quite sweet- most likely thanks to all the food he’s been eating from Heibon lately. Noiz’s breath hitches.

Aoba closes his eyes and enjoys the taste. It’s taking him all he has to keep under control, but he braces himself. He can’t hurt Noiz.

“You okay?” Aoba asks, still apprehensive.

“I’m fine,” Noiz replies, “it feels amazing,” he adds.

Aoba isn’t sure whether he’s talking about the bite itself or whatever sensations he’s registering, but he takes another, larger sip, emboldened by Noiz’s positive response. He’s shocked by the sudden warmth of a hand on his cheek, so he jerks slightly, causing Noiz to flinch in return.

“Shit, sorry, are you okay?” Aoba asks, and he’s about to pull his fangs out to make sure he didn’t tear any skin, before Noiz puts his hand on his cheek again, holding him in place.

“I’m fine,” Noiz says, slowly rubbing his thumb against Aoba’s skin.

“…What are you doing?”

“You’re warm,” Noiz replies, and Aoba isn’t sure how to respond, so he just takes another careful mouthful, same amount as last time, before slowly taking his mouth off of Noiz’s skin.

“Already?”

“I don’t want you to die of blood loss,” Aoba says, licking his lips, “do you still have feeling?”

“Right now? Yeah.” Noiz says, and now that Aoba has a good look at him, he feels his heart skip.

His cheeks are slightly pink, for whatever reason, but mostly it’s the smile on his face that’s hitting him hard. For once it’s not the cocky smirk that Aoba has grown used to, but rather, it’s a small, content looking quirk of his lips. He’s actually quite cute, like this.

“Hey,” Noiz says, reaching over to brush his hand over Aoba’s neck.

“Yeah?” Aoba replies, swallowing a lump down his throat, feeling hot all of a sudden.

He doesn’t make a move to leave when Noiz steps closer. He thinks he knows where this is going, and strangely enough, he finds that he’s not against it.

He doesn’t even try to stop Noiz when he presses his lips against his own. He even finds himself leaning into it, clutching at Noiz’s arms as he does so. Noiz’s lips are soft, which isn’t what he expected, but it’s a nice sort of surprise. When Noiz prods at his mouth with his tongue, Aoba opens his lips and lazily lets their tongues intertwine. Maybe he’s more into it than he originally thought.

Aoba doesn’t know how long it’s been, but by the time they pull apart he feels like his head is spinning. Noiz looks just as dazed at him. While Aoba turns red as what just happened sinks in, Noiz starts smirking again.

“Not bad.”

Aoba’s embarrassment is immediately replaced by annoyance, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m saying it felt pretty good. Or are you saying that you didn’t like it?”

Aoba’s cheeks heat up even more, “that’s not it.” It’s more shocking than anything, considering he hadn’t even planned on biting him, let alone doing anything like that. Then again, maybe he should’ve seen something like this coming after the stunt Noiz pulled last time he’d been at his house.

Or maybe it’s just the need to experience new sensations that drove him to do that. Aoba’s brain is starting to overload at the moment, so he changes the subject.

“For now let’s focus on getting home since we both got our fill. You should eat something,” Aoba says, before taking a good look at Noiz, “hey, are you okay? You’re really pale.”

In contrast to a few minutes ago, his skin has taken on an extremely ashy tone, and he looks unsteady on his feet.

“I’m fine,” Noiz says stubbornly, “everything is fine. You could even go for another bite if you wanted,” he tries to take a step forward and nearly stumbles over, to Aoba’s alarm.

“Shit, I really did take too much,” Aoba says, leaning down and throwing one of Noiz’s arms over his shoulder, then using his other arm to hold onto Noiz’s waist for further support.

“I said that I was fine,” Noiz grumbles, trying to wiggle his way out of Aoba’s grip.

“No way, you’re falling all over yourself. Just hold still! I’m walking you back.”

“After blood loss, you should not overexert yourself,” Ren says. 

Noiz struggles for a few seconds longer, eventually giving up after not being able to budge the slightest inch out of Aoba’s grip.

"You should also properly cover the wound," Ren adds.

"Oh, right," Aoba pauses, realizing he'd tossed the bandage on the ground earlier, "Noiz do you have something?"

Noiz uses his free hand to fish a handkerchief out of his pocket, which they use as a makeshift bandage, Noiz pressing it against his neck at Aoba's insistence.

—

On the one hand, Koujaku is glad that he was the one who ran into the culprit first.

On the other, he’s gotten into a bit of a sticky situation.

He’d barked orders at Kou and Hagima to go get more help, in hopes that he’d be able to take the guy down before anyone else could join in and get hurt.

Apparently he’d underestimated the guy’s strength, because he’s unlike any of the others Koujaku has ever encountered before. No matter how many wounds Koujaku inflicts on him, he just won't back down. He’s already covered in his own blood, some cuts deep enough that just looking at them is enough to make Koujaku want to wince.

But he’s still active and ready to inflict any damage he can on Koujaku. He’s already tried to take a few bites out of his arms and face.

The problem is, whenever he gets close enough, Koujaku has to fend him off, giving him no opportunity to drive the stake in. He’d just slice the guy’s limbs off if he could, but he moves fast- fast enough to have been able to knock the sword out of his hands and kick it out of reach.

Right now the two are basically staring each other down, waiting for the other to strike. Koujaku holds one arm in front of the other, fists balled in a fighting stance. When the vampire tries to go straight for a bite on the closer arm, Koujaku gets the opportunity he’s been looking for. He uses his other hand to grab the stake still tucked inside his kimono, while enduring it as the man tore into his arm.

He’s been bitten there before, so he’s familiar with the sensation, making it possible for him to ignore it as best he can. He tries to drive the stake into the man’s back, where his heart is supposed to be.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t anticipated his impatience. The vampire all but yanks Koujaku’s arm out of the way and shoves him over. The stake, which had barely pierced through his skin, is knocked out of his grip.

The next thing Koujaku knows, he’s on the ground, hands wrapped around the man’s neck at arms length, using all his strength to keep him from coming any closer. Human strength is nothing compared to the supernatural though, and Koujaku’s grip is slowly weakening against the man’s thrashing.

Koujaku squeezes his eyes shut. If he stops fighting, then it’s all over. He just needs to gather his strength and pull through this-

An instant later, he hears a sickening sound, and the man above him goes limp.

Koujaku slowly opens his eyes and looks up. Not a moment later, the body is yanked up off of him, by none other than one of the two yakuza that like to hang around Aoba.

“Careful there Koujaku-san, if something happened to you, it would upset Aoba-san,” Virus, who is standing not too far off, tosses the stake that Koujaku lost earlier over to him.

Trip is holding the body nonchalantly, as blood drips from the vampires chest, which has been pierced by a much longer stake than Koujaku’s. Koujaku slowly stands, making his way over to his sword and picking it up, though he doesn’t bother to sheath it.

“No need to get defensive,” Trip says, though his tone says otherwise.

“These guys have been taking out some of our colleagues as well,” Virus says, “we’re on your side here.”

Koujaku doesn’t trust these two as far as he can throw them, so he simply glares at them.

Trip shrugs in the end, throwing the corpse over his shoulder with ease.

“We’ll take care of the clean up,” Virus says, “you should probably get back to your team. I bet they’re worried about you.”

Koujaku realizes it’s his cue to leave so he slowly walks off, sword still drawn as a warning. He knows they’re watching him go. His phone is vibrating, most likely his teammates worrying about him. He refuses to answer until he’s safe.

Exactly three (four, actually, now that he thinks about it) people are aware of Aoba’s condition, and conversely, about others like him. How those two are somehow involved in this and why- Koujaku isn’t sure he wants to know.

—

The sun is already setting by the time Aoba and Noiz get to Tae’s home, thanks to Noiz’s refusal to be carried completely. Despite the slow pace, the two make it without incident.

Aoba stares at the front door, nerves wracking.

“Ren, how mad do you think Granny will be?”

“I believe she will be quite angry, based on experience.”

Aoba sighs, but enters regardless, Noiz’s safety being his first concern. Once inside, he calls out to Tae, who’s still in the kitchen.

“I’m home, Granny!”

“Welcome home,” she responds.

“Hey, you have to greet her as well,” Aoba says.

“Sorry for intruding,” Noiz says in the most monotone tone of voice imaginable. Aoba is just impressed that he knows proper greetings, considering he doesn’t use them half the time around him.

At the sound of an unfamiliar voice, Tae steps out of the kitchen and looks into the entryway. She frowns when she sees Noiz slumped over against Aoba. It takes her two seconds to survey the situation and narrow her eyes at her grandson.

“He needs to lay down for a bit so I’m going to take him up to my room, would it be okay if I brought dinner up to him?”

“You better hurry up and take him there, he looks like he’s going to fall over any minute,” she says, and thanks to her tone Aoba knows he’s in for it as soon as he makes sure Noiz is safe. Tae returns to her cooking and Aoba sizes up the narrow set of stairs.

“I can go up on my own. I’m fine. Better than fine.” Noiz says. Aoba just rolls his eyes.

“Sorry about this,” he says, and before Noiz can protest he lifts him up bridal style.

For a moment Noiz is shocked speechless, “…what are you doing?”

“There’s no way you can make it up otherwise,” Aoba carries him up the stairs, his strength at a high thanks to the blood he just drank.

Once in his room he lets Noiz down and eases him onto the bed. He puts a hand against his forehead.

“Are you alright? You don’t seem feverish.”

“I’m fine,” Noiz says, “quit fussing over me.”

“Wait here,” Aoba says, ignoring Noiz’s complaints, “Ren, make sure he doesn’t move from that spot. I’m gonna get you something to eat and drink.”

“Understood.” Ren sits patiently in front of Aoba’s bed and looks at Noiz. The latter seemingly giving in and laying down on his back.

—-

Aoba heads back downstairs to where Granny is cooking.

“Is that friend of yours alright?” She grumbles, while stirring a pot.

“He’s still being stubborn like usual, so I think he’s alright,” Aoba says.

Tae turns to him and motions over to a tray, “give him that. Make sure he rests up and finishes everything on there.” It’s filled with food, water, juice, a few tablets, and a package of large bandages.

“Thanks, Granny,” Aoba says, though he’s given a sharp look in return.

“I’m going to assume that this was some sort of emergency,” she says.

“Yeah, sorry Granny. I’ll tell you all about after,” Aoba says sheepishly. The response seems to be enough as Tae simply sighs and returns to finish off the last of the cooking.

—-

Noiz continues laying in Aoba’s bed, facing the wall while Ren watches him. It’s not like he feels anything anymore so he’s not in pain, but his movements are sluggish anyway, so there’s no point in trying to escape.

Mostly, he’s just replaying what happened earlier in his mind. The bite, the kiss. It all felt so surreal, like he was on some sort of high the whole time. It was, without a doubt, one of the best things he’d ever experienced.

He wants more.

But he knows better than to bring it up right now. He’s probably gotten his fill of luck for the day. He remembers his handkerchief and peels it off his neck, the once soft and silky fabric now sticky with blood. He shoves it in his pocket and rolls over, staring out the open door that leads to the veranda.

A moment later Aoba makes another appearance, this time with a tray full of food. He looks pleased that Noiz is still in place, “here, I've got things to bandage the wound up."

Noiz blinks and slowly props himself up, looking straight at Aoba.

Aoba sets the tray down on the nearby coffee table and grabs a washcloth, some sort of tube, and a bandage. He moves in and starts rubbing the cloth against Noiz's neck.

"I can do it myself," Noiz says.

"You can't even see it yourself right now, how are you supposed to do it properly?" Aoba rubs at his neck insistently, determined to clean it thoroughly.

"It doesn't hurt."

"That doesn't mean it can't get infected."

"Are you saying that you carry some sort of disease?" 

"Porphyric Hemophilia," Ren says.

Both men turn to look at him.

"It's the medical term for vampirism."

"There you go," Aoba says, putting the washcloth down and applying disinfectant. 

"So are you saying that if you left it, I would become a vampire?" Noiz asks. 

Aoba ceases movement for a second, deep in thought, "...I don't know. Ren, what do you think?"

"I believe contracting an infection is more likely."

Noiz just blinks, having lost interest. Aoba then finally unwraps the bandage and places it over the wound, "there, you should be fine. Now here, try this. Granny’s cooking is delicious.” Aoba reaches over and drags the coffee table closer, so that everything is in Noiz's reach.

He stares at the selection of food in front of him. After a bit of hesitation, he reaches over for a dish of what looks to be stewed meat and vegetables. He grabs a pair of chopsticks and takes slow, careful bites.

It’s pretty good. Pizza and pasta are still unbeatable in his mind, but this doesn’t fare too badly.

He notices that Aoba is watching him, and gives him a look.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. I was just thinking that the way you’re eating is so elegant. It surprised me.”

“What, you didn’t think I could use chopsticks?”

“Well after hearing about what you normally eat, I wasn’t sure,” Aoba says, crossing his arms.

Noiz continues to chew on the food, looking over his options for what to sample next. While he does, Aoba watches him as he takes careful bites. It looks like the colour is coming back to his face, to Aoba’s relief.

At that moment the reality of the situation is starting to hit him.

He’d done what Noiz had asked for. Now, he can’t get it out of his mind. He’d always discounted the possibility of fresh blood because that would kill people. Not something he was all too fond of. But here he is, Noiz is still alive, and Aoba feels… refreshed. It’s a lighter feeling compared to other nights when he’s responsible for someone’s demise.

Right now there’s a bigger issue at hand. There’s a dryness in his throat now, one that three packets fresh from the fridge had done little to alleviate. He’s full, but, and his stomach sinks at the thought, he’s not quite satisfied.

He wonders if he just made a huge mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get this chapter out days ago, but I ended up having to re-write it multiple times to get it right. It also ended up being pretty long, so editing took me a good while. That being said, I'm going to get straight on writing the next few chapters, which shouldn't take as long. Also, the rating is going to be bumped up at some point, just as a warning ٩(●˙▿˙●)۶ 
> 
> I also just quickly want to say thank you all so much for the feedback you guys have given me! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> QUICK EDIT I'd like to thank my friend Dani for pointing out a bunch of mistakes I made this chapter. I've edited a few scenes (nothing major plot-wise but some corrections anyway) so thanks for noticing all the stuff that I missed. One thing I added was the term Porphyric Hemophilia. So that's kind of jokingly used as a medical term for vampirism, it isn't actually a real disease. On that note though, there is a real blood condition called porphyria, which is not the same thing.


	9. Chapter 8

After being confined to Aoba’s bed for over an hour, Noiz finally convinces him that he’s well enough to move around on his own. His way of convincing being mostly just forcing his way out of the room and downstairs, in spite of Aoba’s efforts to pull him back.

“I guess if you can fend me off that easily you have to be feeling better,” Aoba grumbles.

“I’m fine,” Noiz says, crouching by the doorway to put his shoes on.

“You know, you can spend the night instead of trying to find a taxi,” Aoba suggests, “it’ll be almost impossible at this hour, and we have spare futons.” Before Noiz can reply, a few loud knocks resonate from the front door.

“Aoba? Tae-san?” Aoba’s eyes widen, as that voice is unmistakably Koujaku’s. Having him randomly drop in for dinner is one thing, but he never comes this late unannounced.

“Koujaku?” He walks past Noiz and pulls the front door open, taken aback at the sight. Koujaku had clearly been in some sort of altercation, as he’s covered in bruises and numerous wrappings.

“What happened?” Aoba asks, assuming some sort of territorial rib brawl is the cause, but Koujaku’s attention isn’t focused on him at all.

“What’s he doing here?” He asks, pointing to Noiz, sounding more confused than annoyed.

“What’s an old man like you coming here so late for?” Noiz replies, and Aoba braces himself for the inevitable argument. Instead, Tae stomps over to them from the kitchen, giving them all the most disapproving old lady look she has, “how many times have I told you all to quiet down?!”

Only once before, Aoba thinks, but he isn’t stupid enough to point that out.

“You all, get over here!” She snaps, shuffling back into the kitchen. The three of them follow her, Koujaku and Aoba’s heads bowed like scolded children. In the end they’re all made to sit at the dining table while she brews some tea.

Aoba has half a mind to ask just what the hell happened to Koujaku, but he knows at this point that anything could set off an argument between those two. It’s not helping that Koujaku is staring daggers at Noiz from across the table, with the latter giving a cool gaze in response, no doubt to rile him up.

Really, how old are these idiots… Aoba glances over at Ren, who’s sitting next to the table, for reassurance. He gives Aoba a sympathetic sort of look in response.

After what feels like an eternity, Tae finally passes everyone a cup of hot tea, taking the empty seat beside Koujaku to sip on hers. Once she’s given them all an annoyed look, she’s the first to break the silence. She turns her focus to Koujaku, to Aoba’s relief.

“Another fight? Don’t tell me you’re here to get patched up again,” she says, though with the way she’s looking him over, a redressing of his injuries is inevitable.

“Ah, not quite, Tae-san,” Koujaku flashes the smile that makes women’s hearts throb all over the island. Of course, Tae is completely immune and looks as unimpressed as ever, “I needed to talk to Aoba about… something important.” His voice trails off when his gaze lands on Noiz. Koujaku looks to Aoba for some sort of confirmation.

Aoba nods, suspecting he already knows what Koujaku is about to ask about, “it’s fine,” he says, “well, it’s more like he already knows too much at this point anyway.”

“…Right,” Koujaku says, still looking somewhat conflicted but clearing his throat nonetheless, “anyway, it’s about those two guys that hang around you sometimes.”

“Two guys?” It takes Aoba a moment before it clicks, “you mean Virus and Trip? What about them?” Koujaku has made his feelings about the two clear numerous times, though Aoba isn’t sure why he’s bringing them up now.

“Do they know about your condition?” Koujaku asks.

“No way.” Aoba takes a quick look around the room, “no one outside of here knows.”

Koujaku frowns, “yeah that’s what I thought.”

Aoba knits his brows, confused as to what Koujaku is trying to get at.

“I saw them earlier tonight.”

“And?”

“Well,” Koujaku scratches the back of his head as he searches for the words, “I ran into another problem earlier too. A vampire.”

“Ah,” that would explain all his injuries then.

“It ended up cornering me,” Koujaku says, “and I thought it was all over, but then those two guys appeared. And they took care of it. Properly, with a stake.”

“Huh?” Aoba’s eyes nearly bug out of his head. He’s never had much of an interest in what those two do, but he couldn’t have imagined they’d be involved in anything like this.“I have no idea where they would have found out about any of that stuff, but,” he pauses for a moment, “they’re in the yakuza after all, so who knows what sort of shady shit they’re involved in.”

“That aside,” Koujaku says, “you need to be careful around them. Who knows what they’d do if they found out about you.”

“Well I wasn’t planning on telling them anyway,” Aoba says.

“If you say so,” Koujaku replies, looking relieved.

“If you’ve gotten that out of the way,” Tae says, “it’s late. By the time I finish fixing you up...” she eyes Koujaku’s wounds, particularly the wrapping on his arm where blood has already soaked through.

“Ah, it’s alright Tae-san, I’ll be fine as it is.”

“It’s not “fine”. You’re absolutely careless when it comes to your own body, look at that!” she snaps, motioning towards it and rendering Koujaku speechless, “it’s going to be late. You two wait here. Aoba, come and get the futons with me.”

“Oh, right,” Aoba says, slowly rising from his chair and giving Koujaku and Noiz a wary look, unsure if it’s safe to leave them unattended, “but I think Noiz was going to head home.”

Noiz, who’s been silent up until that point, finally says something, “I’ll stay.”

Aoba quirks an eyebrow, unsure of why he suddenly changed his mind.

“Aoba,” Tae says, clearly running out of patience.

“Right, let’s go,” Aoba says, following her out of the kitchen while giving both Koujaku and Noiz a ‘get into a fight and I swear I will end you’ look. Ren follows after him, leaving the two of them alone.

For a moment they’re enveloped in an unpleasant silence, both staring the other down.

It’s Koujaku who speaks first.

“I don’t know what you want with Aoba, but if you’re planning something-”

“What about you?” Noiz interrupts.

Koujaku narrows his eyes, “what are you talking about?”

“You’re the one who’s always hanging around him.”

“That’s because he’s my friend!”

“Sure,” Noiz scoffs.

“Listen here you brat, I’ve known Aoba since we were kids. If anything, you’re the outsider here.”

Noiz feels a prickle of annoyance at that, “aren’t you a little obsessed? What I’m doing is none of your business.”

“It is my business when he has another suspicious person hanging around him.”

“He doesn’t care so I don’t see why you should.”

“Like I said,” Koujaku repeats, brows furrowed, “I’m just looking out for him. I can’t understand why you’d be after him in the first place after what happened, other than to get something out of him.” His gaze travels to the bandage on Noiz’s neck, where it remains fixated.

Noiz raises his eyebrows, yet somehow maintains his usual disinterested look, “think what you want. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“You really are planning something aren’t you, you bastard?”

“Rather than that,” Noiz says, “I’m more suspicious of your intentions.”

“Huh?”

“Are you jealous or something?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Do you want to get bitten by him too?”

“You…” thoroughly annoyed, Koujaku tugs at the sleeve of his kimono on his uninjured arm, “here,” he points at two small scars on his arm, “do you see these?”

They look like small punctures at first, though upon closer inspection, Noiz realizes they bear a resemblance to the bite marks on his neck.

“I already beat you to the punch a long time ago,” Koujaku says triumphantly, while Noiz purses his lips.

On the other side of the house, Aoba pulls the futons out of the storage closet, worried that Noiz and Koujaku will end up breaking some furniture. He hears Tae clear her throat and turns to her, fearing a scolding.

“I don’t know what’s going on exactly,” she says, eyeing him suspiciously, “but, taking blood from a living person is dangerous.”

“I’m sorry,” Aoba says, frowning, “it was a mistake.”

“You have to understand that it’s not just him that was in danger,” Tae says, rubbing her temple, “do you need me to get more blood for you? Do you not have enough?”

“No, it’s not like that Granny. It was more of an emergency,” Aoba says, “it won’t happen again.”

Tae sighs, “so long as you’re careful from now on.”

Their attention turns to the other side of the house at the sound of a loud crash and subsequent yelling.

Those _dumbasses_ , Aoba thinks with his teeth clenched, while Tae rolls up her sleeves.

—-

Aoba is prodded awake the next morning by Ren pawing at his face. He nods at him while rubbing his eyes before rolling out of bed. Taking care to make as little noise as possible, he tiptoes around the room, past the futons on the floor, and gathers his clothing. Once he’s made it to the bathroom, he changes and washes his face, tiptoeing back in only to chuck his pyjamas into the laundry bin.

Koujaku and Noiz are still sound asleep, thankfully. When Aoba had burst into the kitchen the previous night, he’d found the two ready to fight, having knocked their chairs over and moved to stand face to face. The confrontation was promptly ended with a punch from Tae for each of them.

Later he’d prodded the two of them, trying to figure out just what it was that made them want to go at each other’s throats. They were infuriatingly stubborn, refusing to even discuss the issue. He’d given up eventually, ordering them to just go to bed. Of course they couldn’t do anything peacefully. Aoba could hear them hissing the occasional insult at each other. Finally, his very sincere threats of kicking them both out via the balcony were taken seriously, and Aoba was able to get some rest.

They’re much more tolerable like this, fast asleep and unable to kick up a fuss. He’s relieved to see the colour return to Noiz’s face. After last night, he’d been worried there would be some sort of long term damage, but at the moment Noiz seems to be in good health again.

Aoba stares at him for a moment before it occurs to him that rather than the usual grumpy expression he wears, Noiz’s face is relaxed. It’s a strange sight compared to what he’s used to, though it’s not unpleasant. In reality, he actually looks his age like this, without the lines etched across his skin from the way he always knits his brows and frowns.

His eyes travel down to Noiz’s lips, cheeks growing hot as his mind returns to the night before. He has to shake his head. No. He isn’t going to think about that. It was just a stupid one off thing that happened in the heat of the moment.

He takes one last look at them, hoping they won’t destroy the house while he’s out, before tiptoeing down the stairs and going through his morning routine. He takes three servings of blood, however, his throat still feels dry afterwards. He tries to ignore the feeling and shake the thought out of his mind, resolving to focus on work.

It’s a slow day, with no sign of his friends. Aoba receives a text from Koujaku apologizing for his behaviour the previous night. When questioned about Noiz, the only response he gets is that Noiz had left before Koujaku had even woken up. If anything, Aoba is grateful that there’s no mess to clean up after.

For the rest of the day, Noiz doesn’t drop in once. While normally this would be unusual, considering what had happened the night before, Aoba figures that Noiz isn’t as well as he tried to pretend to be. That, or maybe he’s decided he’s had enough. Somehow, Aoba doubts that.

Even with that in mind, every time the bell rings, Aoba can’t help but quickly turn to the door to see who’s arrived. One such time it isn’t Noiz’s sullen face that comes barging in, but a friendly face that Aoba hasn’t seen in a while.

“Yo, Mizuki,” Aoba says, face lighting up with a smile.

“Hey, long time no see,” Mizuki returns his grin and walks over to the counter to look over the items on display, eventually pointing to a sweet roll, “how’s work been?” He asks as Aoba packages it.

He shrugs, “same as usual,” really, it’s not work that’s been causing him trouble lately after all, “how have you been?”

“Not bad,” Mizuki says, digging out his wallet and pausing for a moment, “things have been a little crazy lately.”

Aoba cocks his head, looking at him questioningly.

“…but I don’t have time to chat right now.” Mizuki pulls out a few coins and passes them to Aoba, grabbing his roll in return. Aoba frowns slightly, curiosity starting to set in. “You should swing by the Black Needle sometime soon so we can catch up.”

“Yeah, I’ll visit next time I have a day off,” Aoba agrees.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Mizuki says, holding the roll up, “anyway I’ve gotta go now. Remember to drop by!”

“I got it,” Aoba says, making the mental note to nag Mizuki about leaving him hanging like this next time he sees him.

___

 

It takes a little over twenty four hours for Noiz to make an appearance. Just as Aoba has let Ren into his bag and finished locking Heibon up, he turns around and finds himself face to face with him. He nearly has a heart attack, stumbling back into the door behind him.

“Would you quit doing that?!”

Rather than giving him some sort of answer, Noiz grabs his arm and starts pulling him along.

“What do you want?” Aoba says, though it’s obvious where this is going. It comes as no surprise once Noiz starts leading him into an alleyway. Aoba pulls his arm back and scowls, “look, this isn’t happening! What happened the other day was an emergency, I can’t do that again.” Especially not with the emptiness in his stomach at the moment.

“Why not? Weren’t you worried about hurting me before? It’s obviously fine. We’ve done this twice without me dying.”

“I,” Aoba bites his lip, mind racing to find some sort of argument to turn this in his favour, “but it wasn’t completely okay. You almost collapsed!”

“I didn’t though,” Noiz says, “besides, that just means you need to be more careful.”

Aoba gapes at him, “you little…”

“Anyway, why do you think I didn’t come by yesterday? I took my time and recovered, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“I’d hardly call one day enough time to recover,” Aoba grumbles, feeling reason start to slip away. “…No! I promised I wouldn’t again! I can’t go around biting people.”

“You say that,” Noiz’s eyes narrow, “but you bit him too right?”

“What?” Aoba searches Noiz’s face for some sort of explanation.

“That old man. He showed me. The scars on his arm.” He says with a frown.

Once Aoba realizes what he’s talking about, he turns red and starts shaking, “he showed it to you?! That stupid hippo-“

“So you do bite others.”

“No. No! Listen here,” Aoba says, rubbing his temples, “just let me explain.”

Noiz raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms, looking at Aoba expectantly.

“First of all, that happened a long time ago- I was just a kid back then! I didn’t even know what I was doing.”’

_It was back around the time when Aoba would still get mistaken for a girl and cry at the drop of a hat. It was a time before he had the notion of something like self control. Of course, Tae had always made sure he was fed, but sometimes children, and their appetites, could be unpredictable._

_It had been one of those days. Koujaku was walking Aoba home, the two hand in hand, while Aoba’s stomach grumbled._

_“I’m hungry,” he said, rubbing at his stomach with his free hand._

_“We’re almost there,” Koujaku said, giving Aoba a gentle smile._

_Aoba pouted and squeezed Koujaku’s hand, extra sensitive to the warmth of the blood rushing through it. He stared at Koujaku’s arm, just in reach, throat dry and parched._

_“Aoba?”_

_His grandma had told him hundreds of times to never bite someone, but Koujaku’s voice was starting to sound far away, with the only sound coming through being that of the blood rushing to his head._

_Rather than respond, Aoba leaned over and dug his teeth into Koujaku’s skin. The older cried out in shock. Being his arm, the skin was sinewy, and Aoba only managed to get a small mouthful of blood. Once he realized what he had done, Aoba started crying, teeth still embedded in Koujaku’s skin with blood dripping down his chin. Koujaku consoled him, easing him off of his arm and leading him home._

“Granny was going to kill me. She yelled at me for days,” Aoba says, rubbing his head, “I can’t believe I had to tell you that. There. That’s it. That’s what happened.”

“…You were a pretty dumb kid, huh?” He’s as rude as ever, but the cold look from earlier is gone.

“Shut up!”

“Well, whatever. Are you saying that you don't want it?”

“Huh?”

“Come on. Don’t pretend that you didn’t enjoy it too,” Noiz leans in close enough that their noses almost touch. Aoba sputters, heat rising to his cheeks. Whether or not Noiz is talking about the bite, he isn’t sure.

Noiz starts to move again, and Aoba hesitates for a moment before shutting his eyes and waiting. After a few seconds of nothing, he opens an eye in confusion, only to see Noiz staring back at him with a smirk on his face.

“What, so you did want it after all.”

“You brat!” Aoba exclaims, just about ready to punch him out of embarrassment, “I’m going to- mmph!”

Compared to their earlier, more relaxed kiss, this one is rougher, with Noiz all but smashing their lips together. By the time they pull apart Aoba is breathless, lips tingling.

It takes a second for him to realize that they still haven’t stepped inside the alleyway. He whips his head around, horrified to be receiving a few looks from passerby.

“You- we’re in public!” Aoba says.

Noiz shrugs, “doesn’t matter to me.”

Beyond mortified, Aoba yanks him into the alleyway completely this time, away from prying eyes.

“Idiot,” Aoba mutters. He’s completely unprepared when Noiz leans in and pecks him on the lips again. Noiz pulls back a second later, looking disinterested.

“Why do you keep doing that?!”

Noiz shrugs.

Aoba wonders why he expected a normal answer.

“Besides, you haven’t stopped me yet.” Noiz says, and Aoba is left speechless.

“I-“ really, he doesn’t know what to say, because he has no idea what’s even going on anymore.

“How about this,” Noiz says, “you could hurry up and bite me.”

He’d promised Granny earlier, but then again, as long as he’s careful, is there really all that much danger to it? Aoba swallows, throat dry, reason quickly leaving him. “…fine,” he relents, “but only if you’ll shut up for a second. Rude brat.”

“Deal,” Noiz says, as an act of rebellion. Aoba rolls his eyes but pins him against the wall.

“Hold still, okay?” He peels the bandage off of Noiz’s neck, this time leaving it halfway attached. He hovers over the area, the skin barely healed over with scabs, mouth beginning to water already, “are you ready?”

“Yeah,” Noiz says.

Aoba sinks his teeth in, the taste of sweet blood overwhelming his tastebuds as Noiz has a sharp intake of breath. Determined not to make the same mistake as before, Aoba takes a small sip at first, then proceeds to wait a few seconds before taking another. It’s like drinking a cool glass of water after a day out in the sun. At last there’s relief for the dryness in his throat that’s been nagging at him for the past few days. He’s not exactly satisfied with the little that he’s taken, but it will have to do. With all the willpower he possesses, he pulls his mouth off of Noiz and licks up the excess blood on his neck. He then leans back and smooths over the bandaid on again.

“That’s it?” Noiz asks, rubbing at his neck, “are you serious.”

“I’m not going to drag you home again.”

“Stingy.”

Aoba cant help but feel slightly grateful that Noiz can register sensations at the moment, making the smack on the head he gives him extra satisfying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. I am SO sorry for taking so long to update. Rest assured, I did not forget about this fic. This fic has been haunting me for the past month and a half, I kept meaning to update it but every time I opened the chapter up it went nowhere. In the end I scrapped everything I wrote and started from scratch, and that finally seemed to do the trick. I promise you guys I am totally determined to finish this fic. I’m going to try to update this every 1-2 weeks. If I get chapters written faster then I’ll upload them as soon as they're finished, but I can’t make any promises. Uni life is unforgiving (；﹏；) 
> 
> On that note, I have a little section [here](http://dramaticalweenies.tumblr.com/fic) on my dmmd blog where I list my progress on various fics. Feel free to check that out and message me there if I take another month to get a chapter out. This is my first multi-chapter fic so I’m still learning and figuring things out, so thanks for all your patience. This is a kind of silly and self indulgent au fic but it makes me really happy to see other people enjoying it too. I’m so grateful for every kudos and comment. Honestly, thank you guys so much, it really keeps my motivation up when I feel like I can’t get anything done.
> 
> Anyway, on a totally different note, a while back tumblr user still-waiting-for-godot drew some really cute art of the fic over [here](http://still-waiting-for-godot.tumblr.com/post/107077000239/noiao-doods-for-the-day-the-last-ones-are-these) (just the last few pictures) and everyone should check it out!


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